Silver Honesty
by ClassicLit
Summary: Of course, he could have just walked by with his feet inaudibly making contact with the earth beneath them. Of course, he could have but that doesn’t mean he did. YazooYuffie.
1. Vibrant

_**Silver Honesty **_

_Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII/Advent Children._

_Hey this is my shot at writing a Yazoo/Yuffie cause I haven't seen many of those. Hope you enjoy, please tell me what you think it would really be helpful. Enjoy!_

Of course, he could have just walked by with his feet inaudibly making contact with the earth beneath them. Of course, he could have; but that doesn't mean he did. He was running an errand for Kadaj. An errand that included an assassination of a very bothersome character. Now that Yazoo thought back on it, the poor guy didn't stand a chance. Certainly, this guy wasn't 'poor' to any extended meaning of the word. He was, in fact, rather rich and a bastard. Yet, these were not the thoughts that occupied Yazoo's mind. He walked out of the mountainous area and ran into a small city. It looked very neat from the outside, so full of color, so full of life. Vibrant, was the only word he could think of to describe the sight in front of him. This, then, brings me to my earlier point: he could have walked by, but he didn't.

He wasn't tired. He didn't need any supplies. He just decided to spend the night there. A very innocent decision in itself, but in hindsight perhaps it wasn't the best one. He walked through the large red gates carefully taking in every detail of the tourist infested place. He looked around and before long found a scratched up, old sign on the side of the aforementioned gate.

"Wutai." He read out loud to himself. He never heard of the place, but then again he hasn't visited many other places aside from Midgar either. Wutai was truly quite a sight to behold. The shops standing on every possible corner strongly reminded him of doll houses that he has seen on a few occasions passing store windows in Midgar. All people were smiling and bustling around. His earlier assumption about this city being full of life was not wrong. The sunbathed mountain that rose over this place also made for quite the spectacular view.

Yazoo finally took a step inside the city and was immediately assaulted by quite the variety of shop keepers screaming for him to buy their merchandise. He politely shook his head in a negative and proceeded past these men into a small bar that he found appealing when still at the gate. It was a small place, dimly lit, with not a lot of people; but just enough not to stick out like a soar thumb. He made his way straight for the bar and sat on one of the stools looking about himself.

"Can I get you something?" A gruff voice asked from behind the bar. Yazoo turned towards the voice to come face to face with a middle aged man, cigarette in his mouth and amusement dancing in his eyes. Yazoo gave him a polite smile.

"Coffee please." He said kindly and the man nodded with a grin before walking off to make the order. Yazoo was enjoying the atmosphere of this place, not to mention that the various inhabitants of the bar were quite the interesting targets to inspect. Of course, as with all good things, the peaceful moment didn't last long and was rudely interrupted by a very livid looking young girl who burst into the bar with a scowl firmly planted on her face. She couldn't have been older than seventeen, but looked even younger than that.

"What's wrong kid?" The bartender said lightheartedly. By the note of amusement in the guy's voice, Yazoo could tell this was not the first time this happened.

"I'll tell you what's wrong." That was the girl speaking. "I hate tourists. No hate is not a strong enough word. I despise them. They should just…" she was interrupted by the bartender's laughter. He waved her off and her scowl deepened considerably. Yazoo who was watching the short exchange couldn't help but laugh quietly at the childish antiques himself.

His amusement time was cut dismally short however as a man who was sitting across the now fuming girl decided to pick that moment to inhabit the free seat between Yazoo and the livid figure. She didn't seem to notice, too preoccupied with trying to scratch something into the wood of the bar itself. She was probably here a lot, and that was probably her seat because Yazoo noticed many different scratches at the exact spot, just like the one she was preoccupied with. The man didn't have quite the honorable intentions, as Yazoo predicted. Yazoo's order finally arrived and in the moment of distraction neither the bartender nor himself noticed the man make a grab for the girl's wrist. Regardless, it was quite hard to miss the sound that resonated throughout the otherwise mellow atmosphere in the bar. She slapped the guy…no she punched the guy square in the face with such force that he fell off the chair.

Yazoo regarded the scene with a raised eyebrow. Where did this girl get enough force for this? He didn't have enough time to think through that however as the man who was fumbling on the ground up to that point got up.

"You bitch." He screamed in a hoarse voice, but before he could do anything Yazoo calmly took out the gun that was tucked safely under his belt and pointed it at the man. He didn't need to say a thing. Yazoo simply shook his head in the negative and the man nodded before briskly walking out of the bar, not forgetting to pay the bill. The girl turned toward Yazoo.

"Thanks, but you really didn't have to do that." First thing that surprised him was the fact that she didn't as much as flinch at the fact that he still had his gun out, and the second thing that shocked him that when she finally picked up her head and looked at him her eyes widened dramatically and she jumped off the barstool flipping it over on the floor.

"You!" She screamed before promptly taking out a sharp looking star and hurling it towards Yazoo. Certainly, Yazoo had no trouble dodging, but he would really like to know what he's done to this girl to make her so upset. The bartender obviously used to these sort of things happening at his bar calmly looked at the both of, and then turned to the girl

"Yuff, you know my rule. No fighting here. Take it outside if you're so set on it." She nodded gravely and shot Yazoo a death glare before walking off. Yazoo sighed, paid the bill and after getting a sympathetic glance from the bartender and putting his gun behind his belt again walked off after her.

_Hope you liked it. This is sort of like a prologue so the following chapter will be longer. Please review! Thanks. _


	2. Bodyguard?

_**Silver Honesty **_

_Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII/Advent Children._

_Thanks so much for everyone who reviewed. I'm glad you enjoyed the first chapter and hope you like this chapter even more. It pretty much outlines the whole plot for what's to come. Hope you enjoy, please tell me what you think it would really be helpful. _

He followed the girl calmly out of the bar and down the busy street. She seemed to know where she was going for he could discern her determined footsteps on the concrete. On the outside he looked tranquility embodied, but truly he was quite furious. He finally found a place on this god forsaken planet that looked mildly enticing and she goes and ruins it. If it was up to him he would just shoot her right this instant, but Yazoo was not one to back out of a challenge. If she wanted a fight, she would get it. Perhaps a painful death along with it.

Yuffie on the other hand was becoming more and more anxious with every passing step. When she first saw the silver-headed man she acted, as she was prone to, on impulse. She mistook him for Sephiroth for a somewhat apparent reason, but now she could have smacked herself. He wasn't Sephiroth; in fact he didn't look much like Sephiroth now that she thought about it. If Yuffie was anyone else, she would probably apologize by now and the whole ordeal would be over, but…there is a huge BUT…Yuffie was Yuffie. She would agree to bite off her own tongue before she would admit that she made a mistake.

Thus went the short trip form the bar to the secluded area right in front of the pathway up DaChao. Yuffie stopped suddenly and spun around while opening her mouth to say something, that without a doubt was a profanity or a derogatory remark, but she was promptly cut off when she noticed that instead of looking Yazoo in the face she was staring at his leather clad chest. Reason? He was following quite close behind and her sudden stop almost made him knock into her. Now he was too close for comfort, but Yuffie pushed that in the back of her mind and undeterred crossed her arms over her chest and shot a glare upwards to where his face was.

Yazoo raised an eyebrow and took a step back; he resisted the urge to snort at her failed attempt to look tough. With her stature and glorious height of, perhaps, 5 foot 2, the sight was not very impressive.

"Who are you?" Yuffie asked while narrowing her eyes in the process.

"With the welcome I have received, I would think you'd know." Yazoo said coldly. It would be quite safe to say that he was not enjoying himself. She opened her mouth to reply, but whatever she was about to say was cut off by a very irritated voice that was heard coming from the path which the duo earlier used to get to the clearing.

"Yuffie! Lord Godo expects your presence in the Pagoda this instant. In fact he was expecting your presence for the past half hour." Yuffie slapped her forehead. Yazoo sighed and rubbed his temples irritably. Before Yuffie could answer the older man standing in the path he shot her a cold glare.

"Does that mean I'm free of your obnoxious persona?" Yuffie glared right back at him while her hand inched slowly towards her shuriken.

"Why you…" she started to say, but was again cut off by the older man.

"Yuffie! Now!" he said sternly and beckoned her to follow him with one delicate finger. Yuffie looked like she was about to protest, but her expression changed almost instantly into grim determination. She walked up to Yazoo, who was looking quite taken aback and grabbed his arm none too gently.

"You're coming with me." She all but growled dragging him down the path again in the direction of the Pagoda. "Can't have you running off on our fight while I'm tortured by the old geezer." Yazoo rolled his eyes and jerked his arm out of her grasp. His day was ruined, he was developing a headache, and now he probably had to sit around for about an hour waiting for the obnoxious 'teenager'. Life couldn't get any better! At least he could have the pleasure of causing her rather painful demise. (Sarcasm by the way.)

"Wouldn't dream of it." He said in monotone. Then added under his breath "And I'm quite capable of walking on my own." Thankfully the walk to the Pagoda was mercifully short and silence enveloped the whole ordeal. When they got there Yazoo stalked off to the side taking a seat on a rather comfortable bench and surveying his surroundings. Yuffie watched him cautiously and only when he was seated did she proceed to enter the Pagoda. Well, more precisely she didn't quite get into the Pagoda. A concerned-looking Godo ran out of it with a bewildered expression on his face stopping her in her tracks.

When he saw his daughter his expression changed form one of concern to relief and finally settled permanently in anger. Through all this Yuffie remained blissfully ignorant of what was going on. Until—

"Yuffie! Do you have any consideration for other?" Godo asked her, and without letting her reply lounged into a rather elaborate lecture "Staniv and I were searching for you for the past four hours. First you don't show up to breakfast, then you don't show up to the meeting at the Temple of Leviathan, and finally a half an hour ago you didn't come to the conference room when I specifically asked you to be there." This all came out as one long run-on sentence and Godo stopped to take a jagged breath and calm himself. "At times like these you can't go wondering off without telling me or Staniv where you are going." Yuffie sighed, she probably received this speech more than ten times in the past week, which was quite an achievement in itself.

"Sorry?" she said looking very much unapologetic.

"I have made a decision." Godo said regaining his composure. "We are going to hire a bodyguard for you."

"WHAT!" Yuffie's scream echoed off the walls of the building surrounding the main square where they stood. And after that, as you probably guessed, the protesting started.

However, it would be much more beneficial to pay more attention to what happened on the other side of the court yard. While Yuffie was 'tortured by the old geezer' Yazoo went through something akin to torture, but from Kadaj. The moment he sat himself on the bench his cell rang with the caller ID flashing out his brother's name.

"Yes." Yazoo said after picking up the phone.

"I have a very important job for you." Came the familiar voice of Kadaj on the other end of the line. Yazoo didn't respond, which meant he was listening so Kadaj continued. "I have just talked to Mr. Katami, who has a rather…influential company running in Kalm. He has agreed to help our cause if only we could get him one thing."

"And that would be?" Yazoo interjected slowly.

"A political tie with Wutai." Kadaj answered casually. Yazoo shrugged even though his brother couldn't see him.

"How do I fit into this?" he asked softly. There was a short pause on the other end of the line.

"The city of Wutai is running as a monarchy. The Lord has been offered an affiliation with the company, but for some reason the offer was turned down. Lord…Godo, I believe it is, has a young daughter, Yuffie Kisaragi, who if put in the hands of Katami Co. could play a major role in securing the tie between Wutai and the company." There was another pause and then a sigh. "Could you possibly get her?" came the clipped question that Yazoo was hoping wouldn't come.

"Yes." He said and after hearing a sigh of a relief and a thanks he hung up. This was exactly the time that Yuffie's desperate scream of 'What!' reached his sensitive ears. He sighed, he remembered the man, back in the clearing, refer to the teenager as Yuffie. He rubbed his temples irritably for the second time in the past 15 minutes. Yazoo got up and walked smoothly towards the scene that was playing itself out in the middle of the square next to the Pagoda. He half heard enough of the conversation to know that Lord Godo wanted to get his daughter a bodyguard. He didn't feel like fighting 20 warriors that were currently situated in every which corner of the square. It would be messy and he had a headache.

If the teenager needed a bodyguard, he guessed he'd have to volunteer. That way it would be much easier to get her to Kalm unscathed. Well perhaps emotionally damaged from her obnoxious banter, but certainly not physically injured. He stopped a few feet away form the arguing father and daughter and regarded them calmly for a few minutes. He really couldn't believe he was getting himself into this. Well… he really didn't have much of a choice.

"Excuse me." He said quietly. Both Godo and Yuffie stopped their pointless argument and looked at him quizzically. "I would like to have the job of being her bodyguard." Godo surveyed Yazoo from head to foot and his face lit up in a smile. Yuffie on the other hand huffed, crossed her arms over her chest, and glared daggers at the seemingly stoic silver-headed prick.

_Hope you liked it. Also tell me if this sounds like a boring plot or something interesting. Thanks!_


	3. A Moment of Silence

_**Silver Honesty **_

_Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII/Advent Children._

_Thanks so much for everyone who reviewed. I really appreciate the support. It's the best part of being a writer _

Dizziness? Check. Blurry vision? Check. Painful throbbing? Check. Yes, Yazoo had a headache. It wasn't just a random headache however. It was the mother of all of them. It was absolutely horrible. Now that he volunteered for being the brat's bodyguard, he needed to figure out a way to get her to Kalm, give her to Kadaj, and never see the teenager again. There was one setback to that plan. Her father was planning on them going to Midgar to visit her stupid friends instead. Oh this was rich! The brat actually had friends? He would have never guessed. Then came the killer. They were supposed to travel on foot because the kid had motion sickness!

This day kept getting better and better. The only good thing was that Lord Godo opened Yazoo's eyes on some of the things concerning the Katami Co. Apparently, in the style of the old ShinRa, Katami Co. had an army of its own. Why Kadaj wanted an army? Yazoo hasn't fathomed the answer to that question yet, but he was working on it. Yazoo also learned that Katami Co. wanted to establish ties with Wutai mostly for the purpose of trade and gaining profit from the paradise zone that the company was planning on building in the city. Needless to say, Lord Godo had a few colorful phrases to say to that idea. Yazoo himself had to admit that it sounded absolutely preposterous. Anything to revive mother, however, would do.

All of this was not the main reason for his almighty and powerful headache, however. The true reason was the rant of reasons of why he was being a prat for becoming her bodyguard coming form the obnoxious princess who was currently packing her bags. He was standing in her room while she scurried around it putting things, that he could not even identify because of the blurriness of his vision, into a rather, already, overstuffed backpack. He could almost swear that the girl didn't breathe. For the past half hours she seemed to be uttering one, long, run-on sentence that he mostly didn't hear a word of.

"Alright, I'm done." He definitely heard that. He hoped she was talking about her rant, but logic told him she was probably referring to the overstuffed backpack currently residing on the armchair next to her bed. He shook his head slowly and started out the door. "Hey, wait for me." He heard a yelp behind him, but there was no way in hell he would stop. He was getting her to Kadaj and fast. She jogged up to him and gave him a curious look.

"Feeling sick?" she asked curiously. He didn't even acknowledge her. He was trying to come up with a plan to get her to Kalm rather than Midgar. Thus far, he hasn't exactly been able to do it considering his very untimely headache. If there was an Inferno in Purgatory; he was pretty sure his experience at this point was redefining it. Yuffie jumped in front of him and started walking backwards with a string of questions that Yazoo didn't even THINK to possibly try and comprehend.

Thus they made their painful way out of Wutai and back on the road. Well, for Yazoo it was painful, Yuffie was sadistically pleased to see him in pain. He wanted to spend the night in the village, but she insisted that they go that exact minute. So it was 7 in the evening and they were already out of Wutai and walking in the mountainous area of the continent. It was getting very dark very fast and Yuffie started considering whether it was a good idea or not to insist on moving out. She gave up on torturing Yazoo and he seemed to get lost in a world of his own. Even though he wasn't Sephiroth as Yuffie concluded, he certainly was somehow…related, perhaps? The silver hair was something that she hasn't seen on anyone before unless they were 100 years old, and even then the hair looked white and not silver. Certainly, it wasn't a simple coincidence that someone who looked like Sephiroth at first glance even had his hair color. She decided not to push her luck, however. The guy didn't seem to be the patient type. If she didn't want to end up in front of the barrel of his gun she should keep her mouth shut. That didn't mean that she could help teasing him though…after all it was YUFFIE.

She tried for a couple of minutes to get his attention and when he completely ignored her futile attempts, she resorted to her last only BOLD option.

"So you obviously fancy me." She said quite nonchalantly while she kept walking. That was bound to get his attention. Of course she expected sputtering and a dubious look, but she got quite the opposite. A very composed Yazoo passed her with a look over his shoulder.

"If it makes you feel better about yourself princess." He said as nonchalantly as her and walked past a now dumbfounded and sputtering Yuffie. She breathed a sigh and caught up to him.

"Don't you understand taunting?" she asked examining him closely. "You're supposed to say 'NO I DON'T!' that's the way it works." She waved her arms around trying to emphasize her point, but he went back to completely ignoring her. She huffed and brushed past him. She didn't notice a small downward concave in the horizon, however and instead of paying attention to her footing she determinedly looked forward. This turned out to be a mistake because that little concave turned out to be quite a large hole and the fact that she was looking forward didn't allow for her to notice that 'minor' detail. She fell in with a rather loud yelp and a scream of pain when she hit the bottom.

Yazoo having noticed the vertical cavern didn't bother telling Yuffie about it. A rather malicious yet graceful smirk spread over his face when she did in fact fall in as he thought she would. He came up to the mouth and looked down in mild amusement on the cursing girl below.

"You fell in." he stated coolly not moving a muscle to help her get out.

"Gee you think?" she asked sarcastically. She tried standing up, but because the space was narrow, she miserably failed and ended up in a rather uncomfortable sitting position on the ground beneath her.

"I believe the passage is too narrow for you to get up." Yazoo said in monotone crossing his arms over his chest and giving the whole scene a rather bored look.

"Brilliant observation Sherlock. How did you ever come up with that one?" Yuffie shot back sarcastically; trying to get up and falling back down. She looked up at Yazoo expectantly. "Well, aren't you going to help?" she asked annoyed at the stoic silver-headed man.

"Well you see" Yazoo said regarding her with indifference "since you were so set on the fact that I fancy you which" He threw his arm dramatically to his forehead and mimicked Yuffie's earlier statement. "I DON'T!" he let the hand fall to his side and allowed a sneer to take over his features when he saw the death glare that Yuffie was shooting him. "What is a better way to prove that than leave you here?" he asked as if he was talking about the weather. Yuffie looked at Yazoo incredulously.

"What do you mean by 'leave you here'?" she asked even though she full well knew exactly what it meant.

"You aren't a parrot; don't act like one." Yazoo shot back. Yuffie rolled her eyes and huffed for emphasis.

"You're my bodyguard you can't do that; stop playing and get me the hell out of here." She whined looking at the dirt that she was currently lounging on disgustedly. Of course, 'lounging' would not be a precise description of what she was doing. Actually if I were to be more accurate in the description of her current positions words like cramped, restricted, confined, uncomfortable, restrained, etc (you get the point) would come to mind.

Yazoo opened his mouth to respond, but both of them heard a rather disturbing sound of calm and slow footsteps coming from their left. Yazoo shot Yuffie a glance and put his finger to his lips telling her to be quite. She nodded in understanding and with difficulty flipped herself over onto her knees. Yazoo smirked and gave her quite, mock applause and looked up to the source of the footsteps.

Before Yazoo could see who was walking towards them he heard a shot fired and felt rather than saw the bullet fly past his left ear.

"Stay here." He said turning to Yuffie and completely missed the sarcastic 'I obviously have a choice' that left the girl's mouth before running off in the direction. Even though it was rather dark outside, Yazoo spotted the silhouette after taking a few steps forward. With his rather inhumane speed he was within the distance at which he could see the figure quite clearly. It was a man, approximately 6 feet in height and wearing a long black coat. In his hand was a gun that was still smoking form the earlier fired shot. The man put it back in its holster with trained ease.

"Sorry, mate." He said eyeing Yazoo who stopped about 10 feet away from him. "I was looking for someone else. Didn't mean to shoot at you. No hard feelings." The man started turning around, but Yazoo would have none of that. With a rather snappy tone which asked for attention Yazoo drew the man's attention.

"Prey tell, for interests sake, who exactly are you looking for?" The man turned around immediately and narrowed his eyes.

"What's it to you?" he asked haughtily. The truth was that Yazoo got a gut feeling that this man was looking for none other than the princess. The ease and precision with which the guy controlled his weapon reminded Yazoo of one profession in particular…assassin. If this company that wanted to establish ties with Wutai was as influential as Kadaj made it out to be then it was bound to have lots of those. This man's appearance didn't seem to be a simple coincidence.

"I would suggest asking for your orders again." Yazoo sneered. "The princess is to be brought to your…owner" he said with an unpleasant smirk on his face "alive." The man's eyes widened considerably before he got a hold of himself.

"It's your job now?" he asked looking at Yazoo with a raised eyebrow. Yazoo didn't answer, but gave the man a curt nod. He did wiper 'unfortunately' under his breath, but he man didn't catch it. "Good luck then." He said before around and gracefully walking away from the agitated Yazoo.

Yazoo was going to turn around and try to get the obnoxious teenager out of the hole, but was topped by his phone ringing. He picked it up and with a sigh turned it back off in a moment's time. He swiftly turned around towards the direction in which the man was walking and with dead on precision, taking out his Velvet Nightmare, shot the unsuspecting stranger in the mass of brown curls that outlined his skull. The shot echoed off the mountains before lapsing into a moment of complete silence. Nature was silent, and Yazoo didn't say anything. It was the least he could do. A moment of silence for the lonely figure drenched in blood, lying sprawled on the ground not too far off.

_Hope you guys liked this chapter. Please please review and tell me what you think. _


	4. Cold, Ankle, Cold

_Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII. _

_Hey sorry for not updating for a while. But I'm back and I'm going to update much more frequently! Thank you so much for the reviews they were really nice and I hope I improved on some things in this chapter. Enjoy!_

**Cold, Ankle, Cold**

She was slowly falling asleep. Even though her body was twisted into an unnatural and uncomfortable position, she couldn't keep her yes open. It was nighttime after all and she, by plan, was supposed to be in a hotel in Mideel. Fate, however, seemed to have other ideas. So she was still stuck in the hole, while her accursed bodyguard was still missing. She definitely heard a shot, she knew as much; but who was doing the shooting and who was shot, was up in the air. These thoughts hurt her brain and she decided to shut them out at the idea of sleep. She just started loosing focus completely when an 'oomph' got her attention.

She looked up to see her bodyguard casually squatting over her. His eyes were trained on her left leg, which was bent in an unnatural angle.

"I understand that it's hard not to stare at such gorgeousness" he teased half-heartedly, while rubbing sleep from her eyes "but it would help if you perhaps considered…getting me the fuck out of here."

She didn't have adequate time to understand what was happening as a gloved hand appeared before her face, obviously extended to be taken. Yuffie did just that, as her sour muscles protested the movement. Yuffie got jerked up none too gently by the aforementioned hand and dumped unceremoniously on the ground. Being the total ninja that she was, she landed flat on her ass (coughyeahrightninjacough).

She rubbed her backside with a string of curses as well as complaints and looked up at Yazoo. He, as should have been expected, wasn't paying any attention to the teenager on the ground, but rather concentrating on looking over his Velvet Nightmare.

"You know, I think you should have simply RIPPED my arm off." She said sarcastically "because that would have been totally cool." Yazoo put away his weapon and concentrated his sight on Yuffie.

"Let's go." He said simply as he turned around and started heading towards Mideel. Yuffie, too tired by that point to argue, tried scrambling up to her feet. The moment she reached a standing position, however, she went plummeting back to the ground.

Yazoo stopped his walking and cursed under his breath. He heard the thud and he already knew the reason for it. He saw the angle at which her ankle was bent, but was trying to ignore it and pray to god it wasn't broken. Sadly enough, luck was simply not on his side that day. He turned around with a sigh and headed back towards Yuffie.

As he guessed her ankle was broken, and she figured that out as well. She was looking with a wince at her foot that bent in an unnatural looking angle. He sighed again; he noticed he's been doing a lot of that lately.

"Can you walk?" he asked uncaringly, after making sure to step over the cavern as he approached Yuffie. She didn't respond, but tried standing up again. That try didn't go any more successfully than the first. She collapsed back down, but at least this time Yazoo got to her faster than she could hit the ground. He pulled her up, and steadied Yuffie on her feet. She lifted her injured foot off the ground and grouchily withdrew her arm from his grasp. She was whispering profanities under her breath and she went jumping away from Yazoo. She was too tired to care how she got to Mideel as long as she got there. Yazoo stood, looking at her with an amused expression on his face. Her little one legged jump/walk was definitely a comic sight.

He rolled his eyes at his own train of thought. He shook his head as she stumbled over a rock and fell down again. A familiar string of foul language followed, and he couldn't help but smirk at the teenager. She was definitely not the passive woman that he expected someone of her social standing to be. He came over to her and squatted next to her still mumbling form.

"Are you ready to let me help you now?" he asked coldly. She glared up at him, but didn't move. He figured that would be as much of a 'yes' as he was going to get. He needed to get her to Kadaj and that would be the end of it. If he had to carry her, so be it. He pulled up her arm and twisted it around his neck. After making sure that he had a good hold on the slim arm, he pulled her up and wrapped an arm around her waist. He was rewarded with a hiss of pain from her, as she lifted up the injured leg.

"Stop hissing. It can't be that bad." He said, rolling his eyes at the 'theatrics' that he very well knew were not simply those.

"Let me see you fall down that 10-foot—"

"6-foot" Yazoo corrected automatically. She continued as if he didn't say anything.

"hole. It hurts!" she mumbled to herself more than to him. By this time she already knew not to expect any pity from the silver-haired man. They set out on their shaky path. It turned out that Yuffie's ankle was worse off than either of them thought. She couldn't put it down at all after a few minutes of walking. She hissed and winced every time she took a step. All Yazoo could do was wince a bit himself every time she would yelp at hving to put her partial weight on the ground.

Yazoo didn't like the position of things that much either. There was no conversation exchanged between the two, in regular context Yazoo would have found that to be a gift, but knowing the amount that he knew about Yuffie was that usually she wouldn't shut up. Having her completely quite for longer 10 minutes at a time was very unnerving. The fact that he also had to be hunched down to her height, as not to stretch the muscles in her arm, was hurting his lower back and he was sure he wouldn't last long.

Yazoo was pretty sure as well that for the past 10 minutes they've walked around 4 feet in a diagonal. In other words, this kind of progress wouldn't work. He didn't want to be stuck on this mission any longer than he'd have to be.

Yuffie for her part, not only was in tremendous pain, she was also tired. As mentioned before, she was falling asleep, and now she was practically there, except for the nagging of Yazoo who every once in a while would shake her a bit to get her awake. Yazoo couldn't believe his luck. This was simply going perfectly. The best he could think of by this point in time was to find a clearing and crash for the night. He gave Yuffie a sidelong glance and thought that she definitely wouldn't mind. As long as the girl gets to lie down and sleep she wouldn't mind where it is. Those were also the thoughts running through Yuffie's head at the moment.

With that in mind Yazoo stopped abruptly. Yuffie stopped with him and a confused expression passed over her face.

"Wha…" she didn't get to finish that statement as the silver-haired man slung her carelessly over his shoulder. "I refuse to be carried around like a sack on potatoes. Put me down." She slurred a little as Yazoo continued on their track.

"You can't walk, I am getting tired of limping along with you. This is the best way to go." He rationalized with her, a bit amused at the fact that she still had enough energy to argue with him.

"Is there any other way?" she asked almost pleadingly. He snorted. Was there? Oh yeah right there was. He put her down on the ground, and after examining her happy expression picked her back up wedding style. Color immediately flooded her cheeks as her happy expression faded into an embarrassed one. Yazoo noticed her sudden blush, but decided not to comment on it. Of course, he didn't understand the source of the blush, so he commented on the exact reason why the coloration.

"Better, princess?" he asked somewhat mockingly. He noticed that the blush vanished and was replaced by slight agitation.

"No, not better." She said while folding her arms across her chest as best she could. "I want to walk." She said after a pause, but had a hard time convincing Yazoo of that…much less herself.

Yazoo decided not to respond to that. She was tired enough not to pursue this topic if he would give it a rest. So he did and sure enough she didn't say anything else about it. He wondered idly why he was being so nice to her. She was just an annoying princess. Maybe that is why he was being nice to her. She was just a kid…a very opinionated and loud kid, but just a kid. To Yazoo's infinite luck they came upon a clearance soon after and his thoughts on him becoming soft screeched to a halt.

He shook his head and looked around to see if there were any monsters in the immediate surrounding area. There weren't any, but he could tell that there could definitely be if only they started a fire. The way the trees bent into the clearance made it an ideal place to hide form the rain, so he wouldn't doubt they would have company at one point or another.

"We will stay here for tonight." He said curtly as he looked down at Yuffie. To his slight amusement she was already asleep. He wondered how she could fall asleep with a throbbing ankle and two arms instead of a mattress under her back, but she managed to do it. Heck, it probably was because the only warm place in the whole of the forest by this point was in his arms. He picked a rather nice tree not too far off towards the edge where the trees were most thick and laid Yuffie down gently, as not to get her awake.

He could only imagine that if she woke up he would have to listen to her banter and complaints about the fact that the ground was cold, her ankle hurt, or the fact that she was becoming cold. In fact, he could see her start to shiver. Her shorts and tank top obviously were not providing the decent warmth that his clothes did. He couldn't make a fire that would attract the monsters in the area. Having to fight some monsters that didn't have the skill to match his own in any way was a simple waste of time. He was certainly not looking forward to that experience if the opportunity called for it.

He couldn't leave her to freeze however. The fact that Kadaj needed her alive and well for his wacko plan to work was ringing like a bell in Yazoo's ears. He hesitantly sat next to her on the ground, hoping that if he'd shield her from the wind that picked up not too long ago she would escape being.

That plan was quickly shut down however when she started shaking a bit and curled into an even tighter ball. What else was he supposed to do. He couldn't discard his coat because that would leave him with almost nothing. He let out a frustrated growl before getting up and walking around to stand next to Yuffie's head. What was he going to do again? Oh right, this.

He sat himself with his back leaning against the tree and dragged her towards him. Lifting her up a bit he placed her head on his chest he unzipped his coat and swung it around the both of them. After making sure that the leather article of clothing covered the girl completely he pulled her towards him, making sure to wrap his arms around her waist so she wouldn't get cold. He sighed quietly, placing his chin on top of her head. He had to stay awake, if anything decided to attack there would be no use in Yuffie.

_Hey, I hope you like this chapter please R&R._


	5. Clean Paths

_**Silver Honesty **_

_Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII/Advent Children._

_Thank you so much for all the wonderful reviews. I'm so sorry for not updating for so long. I had no idea you guys were actually enjoying it. I would like to apologize again, and promise that the most it would take me to write another chapter would be 2 weeks unless dire circumstances. THANKS! Enjoy. _

Surprisingly enough, she felt completely comfortable. She could feel the wind hit her face rather lightly, but she wasn't cold in the least. She tried stretching, only to find that the action was rather awkward if not overall impossible. Where the heck was she? Judging by the red that she could see beneath her closed eyelids, it was morning…or someone was shining a very bright light in her face. The intensity of the light and the wind seemed to suggest that she was not inside. She tried shifting her weight again only to find something tightening around her waste, effectively stopping her squirming. Now she was really curious.

She opened one eyes slowly, waiting for it to adjust to the bright sun light. Then the second one, just as slowly. She really wasn't sure of what she was expecting, but once she opened her eyes the sight that greeted her was certainly not it. There wrapped around her torso was a long, black coat, which looked strangely familiar. She definitely remembered it from somewhere…wasn't it Yazoo's. Yes, it was! Speaking of which, where the heck was he?

That is when she felt the same something, as from before, tightening around her waste once again. What the hell was that anyway? She lifted the coat that was placed over her gently only to find a pair of gloved hands with leather sleeves wrapped around her torso. _'This is new.' _She thought idly. She stayed still afterwards for a bout ten seconds before it clicked. She was currently lying on the ground in someone's arms!

She untangled herself from the mess and detached herself from the limbs that were constraining her movements. In a flash she was up on her feet and whipping around to look at the 'assailant'. To her utter surprise she could see a calm, if not a bit groggy, Yazoo staring at her in a 'what is your problem?' manner.

"Wha..how…tell me.." she stuttered. She really had no idea what she wanted to say, but she needed to say something. Unfortunately, chance chose that moment to intervene in the whole ordeal, her ankle decided to make itself known, protesting the weight that Yuffie was putting on it; and the teenager staggered back almost falling to the ground. Yazoo, having fast reflexes, shot up and grabbed her wrist before she could hit the round however.

"You seem to be much more energetic than yesterday." He teased monotonously. If Yuffie at that point didn't remember everything that happened last night, the mocking remark would have gone right past her. Yet, she did. She moaned and rolled her eyes.

"Well, it's kind of hard to be energetic when you're stuck in a cavern for about an hour and can't move, now isn't it?" She shot back, withdrawing her arm from his hand and limping towards the three where the both of them slept the night before. Yazoo picked up his discarded jacket and put it on himself, as Yuffie sat on the ground leaning on the tree.

"So how far are we from Mideel?" She asked "Oh, and when are you going to start speaking in more than one sentence at a time?" she added casually and almost as an afterthought.

"We are within a two hour walking distance." He said and pointed into the thick of the forest. He decided not to comment of Yuffie's second inquiry. Yuffie whistled. When I said 'thick of the forest', I meant just that. Yuffie could see broken branches laying about in the path (if you could even call what she was looking at a 'path') and the grass looked as if it reached to about the knee. The lower branches of the trees looked horrendous from her position. They were just low enough to hit you in the face while passing, but high enough to have to duck them to get by.

She winced. With her ankle and her luck, she would not escape this experience unscathed. Of course, she could hardly call a broken ankle unscathed. It was just her luck that she forgot her ample collection of materia, which included restore, back at home because she was so eager to leave. Yazoo didn't carry any materia. Being a trained material hunter (coughthiefcough), she noticed that about him right away. All he had on him was his weapon and cold calmness. Yuffie sighed. _'This is going to be fun.' _She thought bitterly.

"So how do you plan on us getting there?" she asked him mock-curiously.

"We walk." He shot back in monotone, just as scathingly. She rolled her eyes.

"Aha…and you're going to carry me?" she asked back sarcastically, pointing at her ankle, which looked swollen and now almost completely turned blue from the bruising. Yazoo contemplated that for a moment. He would not have a problem with that, but he guessed the insistent nagging about not wanting to be carried (by Yuffie) would get to him eventually. He settled for the next best thing.

He walked to Yuffie and slung her arm over his shoulder, while dragging her up. Yuffie, for her part, still hasn't gotten over her sleeping arrangements and blushed crimson at the contact. It took her a few minutes to react to the actual action of Yazoo half-dragging half carrying her towards the forest. She dug the heel of her right foot into the ground.

"You must be kidding me." She screeched before they could enter the overgrown forest. "You're too damn tall and you are ripping my arm off by standing to your full height." Yazoo sighed.

"How do you suggest we continue then?" he asked her, while letting her arm fall from his shoulder, but still grabbing her forearm to steady her on her feet. Yuffie thought about it for a few second before deciding.

"Hell, go ahead." She allowed him to put her arm over his shoulder again. Did she really have a choice? She tried standing on her left foot, but hissed as it was far too painful. Does that answer the earlier question?

So they made their slow and painful way into the forest. The progress was much slower than either of them would have hoped for. Yazoo was now contemplating whether the two hours walk would turn into a five hour one, or perhaps would stretch for seven.

Yuffie wasn't fairing so well either. They were perhaps walking for about 15 minutes and to her utter shock, she could still see the clearing when she looked behind her. There was no way in hell she would get to Mideel any time soon…not to even mention Midgar. She sighed for perhaps the fourth time in the past half hour that she was awake.

They walked for about three hour. The clearing only disappeared approximately two hours ago and Yuffie was giving up on the idea of reached Mideel before dusk. Yazoo, gave up on that idea a while back. When Yuffie started complaining about the ache in her arm he had to start walking with bent knees, so the girl would shut her mouth. Overall, he was in as much pain as Yuffie was. His back hurt, his legs hurt, and on top of that her weight was mostly on him.

The only thought that kept the both of them going was the fact that the faster they get to Mideel, the faster they get to a hotel and restore materia. Luck was not on their side once again though. Yazoo could swear that something was trying to stop him from getting the brat to Kadaj. In about 36 hours they have gotten themselves into a distressing situation after a distressing situation. In fact, Yazoo would have to congratulate this kid for still holding up.

I digress, however. The problem: they found themselves out of the forest and standing in front of four large men with their backs turned to the duo of travelers. It was quite clear that the four were planning a raid. Yazoo caught words such as 'large sum of money' and 'kill them'. It was none of his business what they were actually doing and he hoped to keep it that way. He started steering himself and the raised-brow Yuffie away from the guys, but the quartet heard the leaves crunch under Yuffie's right foot. She was jumping, on the none injured foot to help Yazoo with her weight, and couldn't use her stealth at the moment.

The four brutes whirled around immediately. Yazoo froze in his tracks and shot a sidelong glance at the apologetic-looking Yuffie. He wasn't one to be angry though. It wasn't her fault anyway, if he thought about it hard enough. Funny, how the melancholy Yazoo could be quite optimistic at times like these.

"How much have you heard?" came the gruff voice behind the two poor souls. Yazoo was going to simply ignore them, but Yuffie lifter hand twirling her finger around. Yazoo knew to keep quite and let her talk. So slowly he turned them around and let Yuffie's forearm rest in his hand, accounting for some of the weight.

"Nothing of importance, guys." Yuffie answered back jovially. She didn't want to fight and was pretty good at talking her way out of things. Yazoo wouldn't really mind a fight except for the fact that he was running short on time, and this wasn't any of his business.

"How do you classify something that's important honey?" the man who spoke first asked, while the two who were still sitting on the ground started folding the map that they were examining with forced calm. To her undoing, Yuffie couldn't help herself.

"I don't know…plans about raiding towns seem important. But we didn't hear any of that. Did we?" she turned to Yazoo who was looking at her with a raised eyebrow. If this was what she called talking her way out of things, she must be incredible at picking fights.

"It's not a town; it's a bank." One of the guys on the ground protested, while receiving a well deserved punch on the shoulder from his comrade for stupidity.

"It's none of our business, gentlemen." Yuffie said lightly. "Good day." When no one said anything she was about to sigh in relief, but that was short lived. The guy who spoke to them in the first place took out a rather dangerous-looking gun (not that guns aren't dangerous, they just seem so innocent NOT in the hands of your opponent.) and pointed it towards Yuffie's and Yazoo's still forms.

Yazoo lifted up his hand, silencing the guy who was about to speak. The only reason the other didn't go through with saying whatever he meant to say was because in front of the gun Yazoo looked as relaxed as at the beach. The guys stood shocked, if not impressed at how calmly Yazoo walked to the nearest tree and let Yuffie sit down at the base. Yuffie couldn't say a word, because she was lost on what he was doing too, so she complied.

Just as calmly he slowly turned around and took out his own Velvet Nightmare. The knaves, finally snapping to it, realized he had a gun in his hand took out their own weapons and the guy with the gun began shooting. Yazoo dodged easily out of the way, and dipped in aiming an upper cut at the guys jaw. The aim was true and everyone could hear the resounding, and satisfying, crunch of the guy's jaw deforming. Yazoo didn't waste time to congratulate himself, he kneed the man in the stomach and went on to the rest of them. Whirling around the falling figure and twisting his frame towards the assailants he fired a series of shot hitting two of them dead in the head and the third one in the heart. He turned around to the slumped and choking silhouette on the ground and fired one more shot into the guys back.

Yuffie watched the whole scene with horror and fascination. She figured out that this guy was good, but damn THAT good was a bit too much. The end sight of the whole ordeal was a morbid thing to watch, but Yuffie couldn't draw her eyes away form it. There stood Yazoo, in the middle of a circle of corpses with the brute who was just shot in the back relinquishing his last breath in front of the silver-haired man. The sun didn't seem to mind the display of cruelty as it covered Yazoo's head in a golden crown of weak rays.

Everything seemed to be back to normal. She could hear the birds chirping, the wind was gently kissing her skin, and the sun was hiding beyond the hills of lush, green grass. In this rare moment of analysis she noticed _'Everything IS the same. Yet, four beings just seized their diminutive existence.' _

_I hope you liked this chapter! I would like to thank you all again for the wonderful reviews and for being patient with me. Ja ne. _


	6. Of News and Lies

_**Silver Honesty **_

_Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII/Advent Children._

_Thank you so much for all the wonderful reviews. I hope you enjoy this chapter. (OOOh btw the responses to reviews will be at the end of the chapter form now on…just so you know XD)_

He had no idea how they managed it, but by 9 o'clock that evening they were walking into one of the small hotels in Mideel. Of course, walking is a relative term. If one were to be more accurate the word 'staggering' would come to mind. This detail, however, was one that Yazoo came to terms with about five hours ago. Yuffie has been more talkative than usual, if that was humanly possible. Not one change in the scenery skipped her. She had something to say about absolutely everything. The weather, the change in concavity of the ground, the color of the grass, the rabbits, the squirrels, the birds, the trees, the wind…you get the point. You probably also understand that by the time the dup reached the hotel Yazoo was utterly and thoroughly pissed. He tried asking her on a few occasions to kindly SHUT UP, but no she kept on talking. He worked up a killer of a headache and his vision started blurring once again. Her persistent nagging on account of being uncomfortable due to the height difference didn't help either.

Needless to say, when they reached the hotel he was rather happy…well, as happy as Yazoo could get anyway. Yuffie was excited herself he could tell. She shut her mouth and was rather openly ogling the assortment of keys to different rooms, hanging behind the clerk. 'Bed' was actually the only word running through her head. Yazoo would have found her expression rather comic on any other occasion, but after the continuous (and notice the use of the adjective continuous as opposed to continual) rant he was trying to look at anything else, but her, for the fear of 'accidentally' shooting her. Yazoo froze. After receiving an exasperated sigh from Yuffie he decided he rather push on than get an ear full of the annoying teenager.

What made him freeze then, you ask? Simple. He realized with a start that he didn't want to shoot her. This was certainly…new (for a lack of a better term). Where did that come from? Perhaps, for many people it would be understandable…not wanting to shoot another human being, but Yazoo never found that to be a problem. He shook his head and bated his breath before slowly releasing it. It was late, he was tired, and he needed food. That was it, no nutrients traveling to his brain. _'I must be delusional.' _He though to himself as the both of them approached the counter.

"Good evening. How may I help you tonight?" The clerk asked with a fake smile on his face. Yuffie wanted nothing more than to punch that grin off, but she decided to restrain herself. Not that she could break free of Yazoo's grasp without falling flat on her face anyway. _'You're spared.' _She though amusedly while giving the clerk a smug look.

"We'd like two rooms for the night, please." Yazoo said quietly, warningly tightening his grip around Yuffie's waist. If she thought he didn't see the smug grin she shot the clerk, she was deeply mistaken.

"We have a room…" the clerk started but was cut off by Yazoo's calm voice again.

"I believe I said TWO rooms." He said tilting his head to the side in question. The clerk seemed confused for a moment, looking at Yazoo and then back at Yuffie. Yuffie's eyes widened marginally at the realization of what he was thinking hit her. She blushed a deep crimson, but kept her mouth shut.

"But I assumed…" Yuffie interrupted the poor guy with a loud and rather rude snort.

"Don't assume. Just give us two rooms." It was safe to say that she was losing her temper quite quickly. Yazoo, who didn't spend his time trying to figure out what the young man behind the counter, was thinking, simply settled for glancing around the lobby and let Yuffie handle the situation. The said lobby was completely empty. There was not one person there. By the noise that Yuffie and himself heard coming from the bar next door, he was not too surprised. His attention was again drawn to in front of him however, when he heard a nervous cough from the same direction.

"Um…" the clerk began nervously, looking at the narrow-eyed Yuffie uneasily. He noticed the dangerous-looking shuriken at her side rather early in the conversation and wasn't too kin on saying anything to upset the girl further.

"Well?" she asked the man after a few seconds of silence.

"You see…" he began again. Silence.

"Spit it out already." Yuffie said trying to mold her expression into one of mild curiosity rather than the full out frustration.

"…We only have one room available." The sentence was quick and quite, but Yuffie definitely got that. Before she could argue or do anything for that matter. Yazoo quietly took the keys from the hands of an apologetic clerk and started moving towards the stairs. Yuffie started sputtering at the silver-headed man indignantly.

"Shh, we don't need the extra attention." Yazoo said quietly while helping her up the stairs. When she opened her mouth to argue, he cut her off monotonously. "You are a wanted dead princess, I wouldn't cause a scene because I can only go so far to protect your bratty persona." Yuffie huffed indignantly.

"If you warned my 'bratty persona'" she mocked in an unnaturally high-pitched voice "that there was a cavern in front of her…which I know you saw, don't even deny it…you wouldn't have to protect her now would you." Yazoo snorted at her twisted logic.

"I will go get you a Restore materia. Then you can cause any kind of scene you want, but I'm not responsible for the outcome." Yuffie rolled her eyes as they made their way into the room. It was rather large with two couches on either side of it with a bed in the middle.

"I officially get the bed." Yuffie said authoritatively. Yazoo looked at her for a second. There was obviously no argument that she would get the bed…that of course, didn't mean that he couldn't bother her a bit.

"And how, pray tell, are you going to get to it?" He said with a raised eyebrow. "Walking, as of now is out of the question." Yuffie grinned at him childishly.

"Yeah, but you just said that you were going to get me a Restore materia now." Yeah, he did say that, didn't he? He shrugged his shoulders half-heartedly and promptly released the girl letting her fall gracelessly to the floor.

"Hey what was that for?" Yuffie glared at him as she rubbed her burning behind.

"I did say I was going to get you a Restore materia NOW, didn't I?" Yuffie crossed her arms over her chest.

"Asshole." She mumbled quietly to herself as Yazoo left the room. As she heard the door close behind her, her eyes landed on the television set across the room from her. There was no way in hell she was going to get there. Crawling would 'very conveniently' NOT work because of the couch that was blocking her way. She settled for looking for the remote, and sure enough she found it soon after, lying innocently on the couch closest to her. She reached over and grabbed the piece of technology with a gleeful squeal and turned on the television. She crawled on to the couch with a few hisses and groans, but unscathed in general. Yuffie put her legs up on the arm rest and settled in to watch the…evening news?

Now Yuffie might have liked lots of different strange things at the age of 17 (like sharp and dangerous shurikens), but news was not one of those things. She put a sour expression on her face and fumbled with the remote to switch the channel, but before she got to doing that a very interesting sentence caught her attention.

"_Katami Co. and his right hand men…"_ She shook her head and looked closer at the screen. What the hell was this anchor on about? She sat up and turned up the volume. Wasn't this the company that her father hated with vehemence? She let her full attention be taken by the report that had "Breaking News" in red flashing on the bottom of the screen.

"_Katami Co. just announced its political tie with Wutai. Lord Godo has agreed to turn the dying town into a tourist resort and share the profit with the president of the new rising company. The contract has been written and Mr. Katami is at this point on his way to Wutai, so that both parties could officially agree to the deal." _

Yuffie tuned the rest of it out. What the heck happened? Her father was not more than 48 hours ago screaming about how much he didn't want to have anything to do with this Katami bastard, and here he was signing a deal with the jackass? This didn't fit together. Call her crazy, but this simply didn't make any sense.

She was so lost in thought that she didn't hear Yazoo come in wordlessly and put down a bag full of materia and supplies on the table next to the television. He fished out a Restore materia and turned around about to say something, but was stopped by the disturbed expression on her face.

"What's wrong?" he asked uncaringly, walking towards her. She sighed. This issue would best be decided in the morning than now. She looked up at him and shook her head in the negative. Yazoo, not one to pry, simply nodded his head and concentrated on the glowing green orb in his hands. He cast the spell as Yuffie watched a bit transfixed. No matter how much she watched spells performed or did them herself, the magic looked indescribably beautiful for some reason. She definitely felt her leg get better.

She smiled, having a one-track mind completely forgetting about the earlier news report, jumped up and started prancing around the room.

"Yeah, it's fine!" she screamed gleefully at Yazoo's quite question of how it felt. Her happy dance was halted, however, when Yazoo's PHS gave out an obnoxious ring and with an "moment" Yazoo went out of the room to the hallway. Yuffie sighed and sat back on the couch. Maybe, they should set out back to Wutai.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Yazoo stood a safe distance from the door so Yuffie wouldn't hear the conversation. He had no doubt that it was his brother, and that was certainly a conversation she shouldn't hear.

"Yes." He answered in monotone.

"We have already made the deal with Wutai. You have to keep the girl occupied for another day or two and then…do whatever you want with her."

"Did you lie?" Yazoo asked him tiredly. His brother was learning too much from this Katami guy. Not being an overprotective brother, his unease about this should tell you something.

"But of course, brother." Yazoo could hear a chuckle on the other end of the line. "Mr. Katami simply made the negotiation as if she were here right now." Yazoo sighed and put down the phone. This Katami was turning out to be a real bastard and quite the shady character.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

For lack of anything better to do while she waited for her 'bodyguard' Yuffie went back to watching the news. Maybe there's something else on it that she should know. Unfortunately, for Yuffie (or for Yazoo…you decide) there really was. The report that she started listening to, went on.

'_Mr. Katami will be escorted by his three bodyguards in two days time to Wutai…" _

Yuffie wanted to keep listening, she really did but what she saw flash on the screen made her every sense blur and enhance the unwelcome sight. There on the screen flashed a picture of Yazoo as one of the bodyguards.

She froze in confusion. Yazoo was supposed to protect her from Katami Co. what the hell was he doing working for them? Unless… she felt cold rage run through her body. That bastard was going to pay.

_Sorry about the pseudo cliffhanger. I will try to get the next chapter up as soon as possible. Hope you enjoyed! Please read and review. _

SOMEONE2003: Thanks for the review! OMG I'm the first FF fic on your favs list? Meep, feels very proud of herself. Hope you've enjoyed this chapter.

Jem: Thank you for the wonderful review. Don't worry this fic will not get tragic, because I'm not one for tragic things. I think: "OMG you're so cruel I don't love you anymore goes off and cries thing isn't my style

Mitsuko Soma: Thanks for the review and so sorry for the time issue. It's simply the fact that I have other stories and homework grumples s'alright though I'll try my best!

Sol: Thank you for the review! And you bet Yuffie likes him…just not yet She will though, I promise.

Chaotic Rei: Thanks XD I love Yazoo's gun! I think that from now on they should not make any other type of gun…ever

Lily Silver: Thanks for the review. I will try my best to get them together in a nice…interesting way

Slightly Sinister Sinestra: Thank you. I plan on writing more of it!


	7. Lie Yazoo Lie

_**Silver Honesty **_

_Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII/Advent Children._

_Thank you so much for all the great reviews. Since I left off on a cliffhanger I felt bad and decided to update a bit quicker. ENJOY!_

Ever since Yazoo could remember, not that he claims to have remembered much about anything that happened before about 6 months ago, he could sense easily when he had aggravated someone. It was a talent of sorts and he didn't loose it. Of course, it didn't take that talent—or a genius for that matter—to know that when a person presses you against a door with a shuriken's sharp edge digging into your neck; the person is most likely aggravated…and the cause is most likely you. In case you're still wondering why I described such a situation; it's mainly because that is the predicament that Yazoo found himself in after entering the hotel room. Oh and his reaction was to absolutely flip out...yeah right (sarcasm, sarcasm). He raised a cynical eyebrow at the growling teenager. He really wondered what he did to her beside drag her half way across the continent and heal her broken ankle...and 'save' her from two brush ups with death.

Yuffie didn't seem kin on letting him get off the hook any time soon however (for whatever the heck he's done), so he decided NOT to aggravate her more by mentioning his train of thought.

"I see you're feeling better." He said sarcastically. "Wonder why you needed me. Seems like you can take care of yourself just fine." He mumbled the last part, just loud enough for Yuffie to hear.

"You're a liar." She ignored his comment and proceeded to respond seemingly calm, but with underlying poison to her words. Yazoo's eyes widened marginally. She couldn't have found out, could she have?

"I've lied about quite the amount of things in my life span. Care to enlighten me as to which one you're referring to?" he asked calmly. If anything went awry, he guessed he wouldn't have to keep her occupied for the next two days as Kadaj said to…shooting her seemed like a good idea right now.

"You work for Katami." She growled back with a menacing expression…actually an expression that would have looked menacing, but lost that advantage because of the fact that it was Yazoo she was trying intimidate.

"Yes I am affiliated with Katami." Yazoo answered back monotonously. If he wanted to twist out of this without having to kill her, he'd need to think of something…and fast. Of course, the more she dug that sharp thing into his neck, the more enticing his Velvet Nightmare looked.

"You bastard. How could you?" Yuffie snorted at herself. _'How could you? Since when did I sound like such a…woman!' _she thought to herself. "What does Katami want and how did my father agree to the tie with the company?" she spat. Yazoo sighed.

"Mind letting me go?" Yazoo let some annoyance seep into his voice. This was truly getting on his nerves, which were wearing thin since the middle of the day.

"No." Yuffie spat back firmly. Tightening her grip on his jacket at his chest and pushing him more into the door. That was it. Enough was enough. He grabbed her hand that was holding the shuriken and ducked under it, effectively breaking her grip on him and landing a shallow scratch on his neck. He spun around and stretched out his arm pinning her face first into the door. Yuffie not one to be outdone had no trouble recuperating and firing a nasty kick into his stomach. How she twisted enough to do that was beside Yazoo. He didn't waste any time taking out his Velvet Nightmare though and pointing it at Yuffie who held up her shuriken defensively. Thus, they were at a standstill again.

"Would you like to discuss this, or you rather I shoot you?" Yazoo asked with an underlying boredom to his voice. Yuffie scowled.

"What does Katami want?" she asked again. Yazoo rolled his eyes.

"You already know." He said simply.

"Actually, I don't know. Enlighten me." She said sarcastically, exaggerating the word 'enlighten' as one he overuses.

"A tie with Wutai, which he is going to receive." Hiding the truth isn't exactly lying; it's simply…hiding the truth. _'I am a pathological liar.' _Yazoo thought with a soft snort.

"Why are you here with me? Why did you need me away from my dad?" Yazoo narrowed his eyes at her. She was smarter than he gave her credit for.

"What makes you think that?" he asked her calmly. Yuffie was getting more and more agitated by the minute so she didn't think before she spoke the next sentence.

"On the news it said that you are Katami's bodyguard. You were supposed to accompany him to Wutai!" with those words she launched her shuriken at the silver-headed man. It left her hand with practiced ease and exact aim, but Yazoo's Mako-enhanced frame managed to twist out of the way. He dropped to the floor and rolled, firing a series of shots in Yuffie's direction. For her part, Yuffie managed to dodge all of them, landing in the corner of the room while catching her shuriken. The both of them stood across form each other again and fell in the same defensive positions once again. This time, however, Yuffie was right next to the television while Yazoo stood at the edge of the bed.

"You don't see me accompanying him to Wutai, though do you?" Yazoo asked her logically, picking up on what she probably heard.

"You don't have to accompany him to EVERY fucking place to be his bodyguard!" she screamed back. She was about to throw her shuriken at Yazoo again, but he preceded her actions. All it took was for him to see that slight motion of the hand forward and he already fired two shots, effectively knocking the conformer out of her hand. Yuffie didn't freeze at that as Yazoo expected. In the moment of distraction she launched forward, tackling the poor gun slinger into the bed behind him, making him drop his gun. The Velvet Nightmare fell to the ground with a clatter, and with it fell Yazoo's easy win. He should have shot her when he had the chance to do so. Yuffie meanwhile already landed a punch on his jaw, but overbalanced and started falling off the bed altogether. Yazoo would have let her…he really would, but some annoying instinct decided to kick in at that exact moment and he grabbed her waste effective securing the fact that she would stay on the bed. He didn't notice however the fact that he was about to fall off himself and after pulling Yuffie's weight beside him, he did just that. Mainly: fall off.

He hadn't noticed, but damned thing was much higher up than he anticipated. Nothing that he couldn't handle but one could complain, right? Or maybe it was just Yuffie rubbing off on him. He lay there, he honestly didn't want to move. He didn't show it, but he day of traveling and the fact that he got little to no sleep last night really wore him down. Yuffie didn't seem to move either. He guessed she was just as tired. The throbbing in his cheek started subsiding and he idly wondered how long it would take him to kill her if he really tried. He came to the conclusion that it'd be about 10 minutes.

That brought him to another interesting question. Why wasn't her trying? He could have this think wrapped up and over with, with a pull of a trigger. Why not? _'Frustrating question.' _He said pensively to himself.

"I do not work for Katami." Yazoo said after a few seconds of silence.

"You said you did a few second ago." Yuffie jumped off the bed landing next to Yazoo, in a crouch with narrowed eyes.

"No." he said calmly closing his eyes. "If you listened you would have heard that I said I AFFILIATE with Katami, nor work FOR Katami." Yazoo accentuated the operative terms in his sentence. It wasn't exactly a lie…it wasn't true either though. Well, he didn't swear to tell the whole truth on the stand, so he can twist the facts whichever way he wants to. Yuffie thought about that for a second before plopping down next to him and leaning her back against the wall.

"That mumbo jumbo is supposed to mean?" she asked, claming down quite a bit after what she pulled.

"That is supposed to mean, that I am hired by your father to be your bodyguard." Yazoo said steadfastly. Yuffie thought on the issue for a moment longer. He didn't seem like the one to lie, but then again if he AFFILIATED with Katami why did he have to pretend like he didn't for her father? That was certainly an annoying question. Also, why did the media thing that he was accompanying Katami to Wutai? She sighed. She wanted to go to Wutai. She'd have to go to Wutai! Yuffie decided to herself not to let this bother her. She was a bit suspicious…alright more than a bit suspicious, but if anything this could work to her advantage.

There was, of course, also the problem that she was starting to enjoy his company. It was a rare thing when she could bother someone and they wouldn't outwardly react. Unlike Vinnie, Yazoo actually paid attention, but go annoyed nonetheless. Call her a sadist, but she really did enjoy his company. Actually, a part of her really wanted to trust him. If he said it, she might as well believe him. He's just…Yazoo.

"Can we go to Wuati tomorrow then?" she asked coming back to her childish voice. What was the point of dwelling on it? There was nothing she could do. If he worked for her then great, if he worked for the Katami bastard, the moment he found out she figured it out she'd be shot. In fact, now that she thought about it, it was a stupid idea to attack him in the first place. Then again, as said before, it was Yazoo and he didn't seem like the type to lie…much. Yuffie snorted at her train of thought.

"Yes." He answered back opening his eyes to observe her expression for the sudden change of mood. She smirked at him.

"Awesome!" she shouted back. This is exactly why he didn't understand teenagers. They can decide something for themselves and you have another mood swing on the way. He breathed out a sigh of relief, however. She bought it. She jumped and headed towards the bathroom.

"Don' take the bed!" she shouted over her shoulder. That phrase followed by the abrupt shutting of her door. Yazoo rolled his eyes. Remember that thing about not being able to pinpoint why exactly he didn't want to harm her? Well, he pretty much got it. THAT attitude was the reason. The enthusiastic, moody, and sarcastic attitude.

He picked himself up off the floor and walked to the couch. Looking at the television he saw that the news was still playing. After picking up and checking over his Velvet Nightmare he had to resist the urge to shoot the damn screen and most importantly the news anchor. Those beings did no good to humanity!

He waited around until Yuffie came out of the shower, jumping into the bed and throwing one of the pillows onto the couch that he already laid out a comforter on.

"G'night." He rolled his eyes as he heard soft snoring in a matter of minutes after her head hit the pillow.

"Sweet Dreams." Well, there was nothing else to do than get the grime off himself and sleep. He checked his cheek in the mirror with a wince. As small as Yuffie was…the girl could definitely throw a punch.

_Hope you liked that chapter. Thanks for all the reviews again they were wonderful! _

DemonSurfer: ME VERY SORRY! Me thinks I accidentally skipped you XD Thanks so much for the review! Sorry about not having a window, but she did tackle him onto the bed.

SOMEONE2003: I really appreciate your reviews…they're almost as long as the chapters! Thank you soo much XD I decided not to give Yuffie the whole story yet, because as you said I wouldn't want to make the fic shorter than it would have been if I didn't take the drastic turn in events! I don't have a break yet, I after the next week XD very happy about that. Hope you weren't disappointed with the chapter!

Randi Lynne: Thanks so much. It was sort of a constant struggle with me and keeping Yazoo in character

Lily Silver: Thankees! See Yuffie didn't go too hard on Yazoo…even though she did punch him 0-0

Mitsuko Soma: Thanks for the review. How'd you like the tackle on the bed part? I wrote that especially for ya XD

Sol: Thanks! I felt guilty for the cliffhanger so here's a bit of an early update

Chaotic Rei: Thank you for the review. Yuffie isn't THAT pissed anymore - that's because she like Yazoo…ooops did I say that out loud?

Chocolate Obssessed Squirre...: Thank you, thank you! I decided not to let Yuffie beat Yazoo that much XD He's after all one she sorta likes :D

Indigo Angel: Thanks for the review! My certainly go ahead I won't mind at all XDD


	8. Of Musings and Judges

_**Silver Honesty **_

_Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII/Advent Children._

_Thank you so much for all the great reviews. School is finally out so I'm hoping the updates will come a bit faster. Enjoy!_

You know those people that look like angels when they're asleep? They lie on their side, curled into a ball, hugging one thing or other. The fluffy comforter drawn conveniently to their chin and their head is comfortably lying on the pillow. Their breathing is steady and so quite that you can barely hear it even when you're close. Well, to Yazoo's chagrin, Yuffie was NOT one of those people.

Lie on their side? What the heck was that? Yuffie obviously didn't know the definition of the word "still". Not that I'm claiming she understood that denotation when she was awake either. The comforter was loosely wrapped around her midriff, with the corners idly tangling over the edges of the bed. The pillow was nowhere to be seen. Yazoo had a sneaking suspicion that the lack of this certain pillow was due to Yuffie chucking it at him in the middle of the night. In fact, it was that accursed pillow that woke him up.

Oh, here was the real kicker. Besides not sleeping quietly…she talked. Can you believe this? She had full out conversations with herself. And as opposed to most people, where they make unintelligibly noises, she formed coherent words and sentences. I mean this were legitimate, deep and philosophical discussion about…who stole her candy. That's right, for the past 20 minutes Yazoo was listening to Yuffie threaten whoever stole her candy. He sighed and turned over to his side, away from Yuffie and facing the wall. Maybe if he didn't see her rolling on her bed and mumbling things, he'd stop hearing everything as well. No such luck.

"Give back my candy!" This was already getting ridiculous. She was no longer talking, she was screaming. He had enough of her childish voice for the past few days, all he wanted was to get rid of it. _'But maybe I don't want that as much as I'd like to believe.' _He though morbidly. For, perhaps, the 100th time since his head landed on the pillow did he remind himself of the deal he made with Yuffie. His brother was going to kill her when they got to Wutai anyway. In fact, Kadaj just might kill Yazoo too. Yazoo's groaned. This was not worth the effort…SHE was NOT worth the effort. _'But she certainly seems to be.' _When your own mind starts mocking you, you know something is very wrong.

"No don't take it. It's mine!" Yazoo rolled his eyes. There was no use in trying to get any sleep this way. He'd have to wake her up. He rolled off the couch landing in a cat like position on the floor. He snorted at his lack of calculation. He was used to sleeping on a bit wider area than this narrow piece of furniture. He got up and walked towards Yuffie's bed. She was still tossing and speaking to some unknown perpetrator, who as mentioned stole her candy.

"Yuffie," he said quietly. This was probably the first time he's ever said her name. It sounded so foreign to his ears. "wake up." He finished his sentence a bit more sternly. She didn't hear him obviously.

"He won't give me back my candy." She said in a whiny voice. Yazoo sighed.

"Then leave it with him." He mumbled to himself. He wasn't talking to her, he really wasn't, but that didn't stop her from replying anyway.

"But it's mine!" Yazoo raised an eyebrow. Now this was interesting. As far he could tell she was definitely asleep. She was talking back to him nonetheless. He shook his head with a small smirk. Well, after all she did torture him for the last two and then some days straight.

"No it's not." He answered back seriously.

"You're wrong!" Yuffie was on the verge of tears, he could hear it. Call him a sadist, but he wasn't in the least bit sympathetic. Alright, maybe a little. He decided he shouldn't go any further.

"Yuffie get up will you?" He asked her, while starting to shake her shoulder gently. If he was expecting her to wake up with that action he was sourly mistaken. She turned on her side, catching his hand and pulling it towards herself like a plush toy. She then proceeded to hug it and wrap herself around the pale limb. Yazoo took in a deep jagged breath. This was not going the way he was planning. He sat himself on the floor, while crossing his legs butterfly style.

He probably should have woken her up, but he felt bad. After his Mako injection he didn't feel half as tired, even without sleep. She on the other hand…well, she was a fragile-looking teenager with no 'injection' to help her cope with her tiredness. He growled lightly under his breath. This was absolutely spectacular. He was stuck on the cold floor for the rest of the night, which would come to an end only about 4 hours from then.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&In the morning

Yuffie slowly came to her senses. The first sense that seemed to start working was hearing. She never claimed to have the keenest ear, but being a ninja that particular one of her senses was rather advance. She could quite clearly a steady breath beside her own very close to her. A bit too close for comfort.

Second thing was feeling. Her hazy mind discerned that her hands were holding on to something. Something solid. She couldn't understand what exactly the item was and considering that she didn't feel herself apt to open her eyes just yet, she decided to see if she could understand without her vision.

She slowly ran her hands up from where she was holding the mystery thing up towards her pillow until she felt the supposed stick become wider. She her left hand up the widened area and then noticed that it branched off into five different digits. She quickly identified them as fingers. So she was holding on to a hand.

Yuffie's hazy mind definitely registered that more that anything else. She was hugging a hand. Whose could that possibly be? She shot out of bed like a rocket, releasing the offending object and rolling off to the other side. She landed ungracefully, face flat on the floor with a muffled 'oomph.'

Yazoo having fallen asleep on the floor in his sitting position was awakened, only to find his soar arm finally back in his possession. After inspecting his almost blue looking arm, because of the lack of circulation in it for the past 3 or so hours, he heard a groan coming form the other side of the bed.

"Yuffie?" He asked unsure. He couldn't have missed her exiting the room. Could he have? Yuffie definitely heard her name. She almost smiled at the sound of it. It definitely had a ring to it with his voice. It wasn't her dad or some womanish Tifa calling her Yuffie. It was said in a serious baritone. Sort of like Vincent. Speaking of Vincent, this guy could probably rival him in the art of showing a complete lack of emotion towards everything.

"Yuffie?" He came around too look at the girl lying sprawled on the ground. He rolled his eyes. If it was anyone else he'd be sure they were hurt, but being Yuffie…well, she might have not woken up just yet.

He squatted down next to her. If she WAS in fact still asleep he really didn't know what would wake her up. Actually, he didn't even want to start imagining it. Yuffie turned over to lie on her back and playfully glared up at Yazoo.

"Jeeze, you didn't have to scare me like that." He raised an eyebrow at that one.

"I scared you?" He asked solemnly.

"Well yes! You should have warned me that your hand…oh wait why was I hugging your hand exactly?" she asked sincerely curios. He shook his head. Maybe if he just went back to sleep and pretended like this conversation never took place he's forget about it.

"Why don't you ask yourself that question?" Yuffie looked at him puzzled before narrowing her eyes slightly.

"I was a sleep."

"Painfully noticed." Yazoo mumbled back, just loud enough for Yuffie to hear.

"Since the defendant does not have a reply, he will be punished." She answered back pompously. The whole effect was lost due to the fact that she was still rolling around on her back.

"I am the one who's guilty?" Yazoo asked incredulously. Yuffie definitely understood that she was at fault here, but she decided to be difficult. Before he could rise to his complete height, with a high pitched scream she launched herself at him, effectively tackling him to the ground. She jumped off him the moment his back collided with the floor. She pumped out her chest pompously with a laugh.

"When the Great Ninja Yuffie finds you guilty of something, you are guilty on all counts! You do not question the decision of the court." She lifted her head as high as she could without cracking her neck and turned her face away form him.

Yazoo snorted. No, no, no and no. This was not the wake up call that we was expecting to receive and certainly didn't want to receive. Somehow being rudely awakened and then attacked didn't sit well with him. You can see why, right?

Now he had two choices. Retreat back to his shell and hope that she calms down and doesn't touch him or…he swung his legs around with full force knocking her off her feet. Not being able to keep her balance she landed on the floor with a light thud, face first once again.

"And the defendant objects." Yazoo said, standing up and walking towards his couch while picking up the pillow that was thrown down to the floor by Yuffie. She stood up slowly with a wince at feeling her knee that hit the floor rather hard.

"You are NO fun!" She rolled her eyes at herself.

After a small struggle for the restroom that Yazoo gave up freely because he preferred to lounge a bit longer on the bed, rather than the coach, the duo was ready to get out. Oh before I proceed with the story I should remind you that Yuffie's ankle was healed.

They descended the stairs with Yuffie hopping behind him. He approached the counter with the same happy Yuffie still hopping. He paid for the room and gave back the key and Yuffie was still smiling cheerfully at the whole ordeal. He exited the hotel into the mildly busy street of Mideel…you didn't actually think Yuffie was going to leave that easy, did you?

Yuffie was following Yazoo up to the point where she herself was standing right in front of the counter. The same clerk from before was still standing behind it with the same infuriatingly fake smile on his face. All Yazoo heard form the outside was a yelp, crash, bang and silence before Yuffie came bounding out with a spring to her step.

"What did you do?" he asked walking away from the scene. He didn't exactly want to know, but curiosity got the better of him.

"Me?" Yuffie gave Yazoo a very innocent smile. A bit too innocent. "I did not do a thing except tied my shoe." Yazoo decided to give it up. Whatever she did would not bite them in the ass now considering the fact that they were heading back to Wutai was a big enough problem.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&Back at the hotel

Remember the fake smiling clerk? Of course you do…well at this moment in time, as Yuffie and Yazoo were making their way out of Mideel, he was sporting a rather colorful shiner with about 50 keys—including the shelf that they hung from—littering the floor around him.

DemonSurfer: Thanks! Hope you like this chapter. Sort of a filler for later events, but certainly fun to write.

Ate.Ko: Aww thank you so much

Mitsuko Soma: Hehe, I'm just as obnoxious but identify more with Reno! Thanks so much for the review.

Lily Silver: Thankees! Lol I know what you mean! Sorry for the later update though. Now that school is over I can make these chapters come quicker.

Anarchy's Ashes: Completely agreed. They should have known who they're dealing with! Thank you for the review.

Indigo Angel: You're welcome and thank you too I wouldn't either actually!

Chocolate Obssessed Squirre...: Thanks soo much! Probably not as hot, but you have to remember it is Yazoo. He's hot in general

Chaotic Rei: Thanks! I don't know if it's going to be Godo's ass that gets kicked, but certainly some ass kicking to follow XD

Slightly Sinister Sinestra: Thanks and don't worry about it. Great that you liked the fight I was worried about it

SOMEONE2003: Thanks! I don't think it was so much Yuffie PMSing as me that day LOL! Sorry about the grammar thing. I get so carried away and I don't want an idea to escape me that I just sort of don't particularly pay attention. I'll try

Sol: Thanks for the review. I know news anchors are horrible horrible people

Fairy-Rune: Thank you, here's the update XD

Audra Kaiba: Thanks for the review. This is sort of a filler, but you will find out exactly what happens next chapter.


	9. Defenseless

_**Silver Honesty **_

_Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII/Advent Children._

_So sorry for the late update. I was on a cruise for vacation and didn't have time to write Thank you so much for all the wonderful reviews! I decided not to bore you with the answers for this chapter, but don't worry the next update I'll be responding again XD ENJOY!_

The further they went into the sunny terrain of the western continent the more he wished himself dead. They were already rather far away from Mideel and at least half way to Wutai. It proved beneficial having an unscathed and energetic Yuffie…to the trail at least. For his headache, that was starting to grow once again...well…that was a different story altogether. He sighed again, rubbing his temples to try and ease the pain that started somewhere at the back of his head and made its slow way to grasp most of his every limb.

Of course, the reader has to understand that the main cause for his current death wish was not at all the incessant talking from Yuffie. It was rather disturbing how much he has gotten used to it. He didn't even hear what she was talking about. He was more worried about what Kadaj was going to do with him. That was also a disturbing question. Yazoo wondered which color coffin he would have. Perhaps it will be black? Or maybe gray?

The silver haired man shook his head, trying to clear the depressing thoughts from his over active imagination. Problem was…that wasn't so much imagination as reality of what's been done to others. He would think about it later. The man looked at Yuffie and let out a frustrated growl. He was running out of time for laters.

He was actually so engaged in the masked monolog that he completely disregarded that Yuffie has ceased her talking and was currently standing frozen at the edge of the forest.

"Hey Yazoo?" She called in a hushed whisper. Yazoo stopped and turned around to face her with his usual distasteful expression set firm into his flawless features.

"What is it?" He asked, trying to keep his voice as monotone as he possibly could.

"Do you have a brother by any chance?" Yuffie asked, still not drawing her attention from whatever she was looking at in the depth of the forest. Yazoo's eyebrow shot up. How did she know that? He came closer to her with the word 'no' already forming on his lips…until he saw what exactly she was looking at. It couldn't be…could it?

Short silver hair, black leather clothes, an abnormally large black-green bike…too many similarities to be just a look alike. Oh no, this was Loz. Yazoo was sure of it. What kind of a brother would he be if he didn't know? The poor 'bodyguard' stood frozen in place for a few seconds, his mind racing. If Loz was here, then the Katami guy was here as well. And that would also mean…Kadaj. _'Shit!' _ He swore to himself as his eyes widened marginally.

He wasn't afraid of his brother, not at all. But, Kadaj got, in a way, possessed. Sometimes, he would sit in a corner for an hour simply talking to himself—or as he says, to mother. After these monologs it was a dangerous thing to touch him. Kadaj wasn't himself…Yazoo wondered if his brother was slowly becoming the infamous Sephiroth, who he heard so much about; but, as usually happened, he kept his thoughts to himself. If you were to get into a fight with Kadaj after that conversation with 'mother' it would be one hard bind to get out of. The only two ways to get out of a fight with Kadaj at that point would be to kill the youngest brother or let him kill you. Yazoo, never being very close to his dysfunctional family, was certainly not looking to experience that.

The fact that Kadaj and this Katami character were missing from the scene at this point in time put Yazoo on edge. Truth was Yazoo never much believed the mother spiel. He was no angel and no lunatic, he liked the idea of power more than anything else that his brothers seemed to care about.

Yazoo's thoughts were interrupted by a small gasp that was heard next to him. Yuffie figured it out. Next thing he knew, to keep the crazed teenager from attacking Katami who showed up on the scene, he closed Yuffie's mouth with his gloved hand and grabbed her around the waist jumping away from the edge of the forest and to the nearest circle of trees that he could find. He gave the struggling teenager a glare.

"You are going to stay quite if you don't want me to knock you out." He whispered harshly as she scowled at him. Yuffie removed his hand from her mouth and squatted down on the ground next to the silver-haired man. They both saw Loz, Katami, and now Kadaj exit the forest that they were just standing by.

"Where's the princess?" Katami asked Kadaj. It was rather obvious that they were continuing a started conversation. Loz wasn't paying much attention, but answered for Kadaj nonetheless.

"She's lost to the world." He said with a bit of a manic gleam entering his eyes. _'Ah…so they think I already killed her.' _Yazoo thought to himself. He heard an indignant snort form beside himself and couldn't help but smirk.

They couldn't stay there much longer, however. If the three people in the clearing mentioned anything about him, which they were bound to do, he'd be screwed. Before he could so much as move a muscle, however, he felt a nervous tug on his sleeve. His glare was already set in place and he was about to tell her to shut her mouth, but then he saw him. A boy…about the age of 13. He was dressed in Wutaian clothes with black hair and olive colored skin. This boy was exactly who Yuffie was pointing at.

Yazoo's eyes widened. Apparently, Kadaj noticed the poor kid as well. As said before, Yazoo was no angel, but he didn't bother people who weren't in his way. Kadaj was a bit different. EVERYONE was in his way. No matter how little of a threat they presented. This little boy would be no exception.

Yazoo grabbed Yuffie by the wrist none too gently and with a cold stare inclined his head towards the left, where he saw a small path that they could escape by. Yuffie shook her head looking back at the small boy in the bushes. Yazoo growled under his breath.

"If I get him, can we leave?" He asked her quietly with annoyance clear as day in his voice. Yuffie smirked at the man and nodded her head enthusiastically. Yazoo got up quietly and almost started making his slow way towards the child when he felt himself be pulled back down towards Yuffie. He looked up confusedly into her wide eyes and it didn't take him long to figure out what he just missed. Kadaj had the kid.

His conjecture was only proven when he heard a muffled yelp from in front of the duo and saw his younger brother lift the child up by the hem of his robes. _'Shit!' _Yazoo found himself cursing silently for the second time that day. This was not going to be pretty.

"Look what we have here." Kadaj started in an almost teasing manner. "A spy, is it?" The boy's eyes widened even more, if that was possible, and he shook his head vigorously in the negative.

"N-n-no, sir." The poor kid stammered out. "I-I was s-simply pass-sing through the fo-r-rest." The child was obviously finding it hard to speak coherently. Of course, that was partly due to the tight hold that Kadaj had on the poor boy's robes. To Yazoo's disgust, Loz and Katami were continuing their conversation as if nothing was happening within 10 feet of where they stood. Yazoo contemplated jumping out and helping the child, but that would put himself and Yuffie in jeopardy…oh yes. If Kadaj sees her alive and Yazoo protecting children from Wutai there will be consequences. Quite frankly, as absolutely horrible as it is, Yazoo would rather keep his own wellbeing (and to his utter astonishment Yuffie's) than this kid's.

"There's a brilliant example of human nature." Yazoo muttered darkly under his breath as Yuffie watched with jaded breath what was about to happen. The silver haired man contemplated running again, but it was too late. Kadaj was too close to their hiding location and would be able to hear them without a problem.

"I believe you." Kadaj said with a small sinister smile on his face. He put the child down and waved a dismissive hand away from himself. "Run along then."

"Th-thank you, sir." Came the stammered reply before the kid took off through the clearing. Or rather, he would have. Yazoo covered Yuffie eyes as fast as he could, pulling her close to himself and not letting her move. He could feel bile rise up his throat, leaving a sour aftertaste in its wake.

A crimson droplet connected with the contrasting color of the green grass on the Earth floor; the sound reverberating through the deafening silence of the clearing and the surrounding area. It seemed that all sound ceased just to hear the last breath of circumstance's victim. A streak of red decorated the brown dirt with its vibrancy as drop after drop the area beneath the child's feet was painted the murderous color.

Katami and his 'bodyguards' went out of the clearing wordlessly as the sun's last weak rays were dying from view. Yazoo still couldn't move. He sat there still as ever still holding Yuffie in his arms and not drawing his gaze away form the mutilated body on the ground. The only word that seemed to be running through his mind was _'Defenseless.' _

Perhaps this was the moment that he decided that mother wasn't worth it. Maybe the moment came long before then. One could probably even argue that the moment came later, but one thing is for certain…he wasn't going along with this anymore. The fucking bitch could rot in hell for all he cared. He was a materialist…and this fucking dream of having a mother who would come down to Earth and rule it with him as a right hand advisor was getting ridiculous. He saw her HEAD for crying out loud. There is no way that modern science can get a head reattached to the body and make everything function. Yazoo was no genius, but he was no lunatic or idiot.

He knew exactly when he was being had…and currently he was being had. By his two brothers no less. He stood up rather suddenly, bringing Yuffie up with him. She was as white as a sheet and didn't say a word to his inquisitive gaze.

"You wanted to go to Wutai?" He asked her with a determined expression settling over his features. She gathered up all her strength not to look in the direction of the corpse that she was painfully aware of. Yuffie nodded her head in the affirmative.

"Fine then." Yazoo started walking away from the scene deeper into the forest. "We will need equipment. We will need materia." He spoke more to himself that her. "Where can we get supplies?" He asked himself again, but got an answer nonetheless…as shaky one at that.

"Costa del Sol." That's where they were going. Costa del Sol.

_Hope this wasn't too sudden a turn for you. I was trying to hint in the earlier chapters at the fact that Yazoo wasn't exactly into the whole spiel, hope you picked up on that _ _If there are any concerns that you have with this…or simply don't like it…please tell me! I will glad to rewrite the chapter and send everything in another direction if you guys don't approve! After all this fic is for you XD R&R please. _


	10. Stubborn Pull

_**Silver Honesty **_

_Disclaimer: I do not own FFVII/Advent Children._

_Thank you so much for all the wonderful reviews. Sorry for the late update! I went to Japan for vacation and only arrived about two days ago! So sorry to keep you waiting. I'll just leave this chapter without responses, but if you guys enjoy them let me know and I'll start answering individual reviews at the end. Sorry so much again and hope you enjoy. _

If Yazoo learned anything important from his trip to Costa del Sol, it was to NEVER ask Yuffie any questions or try starting a conversation with her…EVER! When they left towards the sunny capital the teenager was unusually quite. Obviously, there was a good reason for the lack of her usually vibrant self, but it was starting to grate on Yazoo's nerves…at least, that was what he would have liked to believe. In all reality, this deathly silence in the ninja's company was so disturbing to the stoic gunslinger that it came as a curse more than a blessing. Yazoo snorted bitterly to himself. And only to think that two days beforehand he would have been screaming for joy at this complete lack on noise. Of course, screaming and joy were not words in the silver-head's vocabulary, so I would love if the reader would be so kind as to forgive the formulation of that phrase simply to get the point across.

So they made most of their trek in silence that was weighing down on Yazoo more than on Yuffie. How interesting it was that she could actually stay quite. It was interesting, but Yazoo would have loved it if the reason for the silence was different. So without thinking, in the hopes that an answer would prove that she wasn't a zombie walking behind him (because that was pretty much the impression he was getting), Yazoo was careless enough to ask a question. One simple question that would have merited a yes or no, but this was Yuffie weren't talking about.

"Are you cold?" He was being nice. She hugged herself and looked to have been shivering. They haven't exactly reached the sunny capital as of then and evening was fast approaching, so he thought he'd offer her his jacket if she said yes. Instead of the expected yes, however, Yuffie decided to pose another question right back at him.

"Why do those two silver-haired men look so much like you?" Yazoo would have frozen in his tracks if only his pride didn't push him calmly forward. What the hell was he supposed to answer? _'Oh you know…brothers… trying to bring Jenova back and rule the world.' _Please note how impossibly straight forward that was and how he was NOT going to say that. What was he going to say then?...now that we got one option out of the question. Ah fuck it.

"Brothers." Was the shortened, but certainly truthful, version of the reply. He didn't want to turn around. He could already imagine the half-shocked, half-angered expression on Yuffie's face. Now you can imagine his surprise (of course none of it quite reaching Yazoo's face) when Yuffie came up next to him with the most carefree look.

"I figured as much." She said nonchalantly. Yazoo raised an eyebrow at her, but decided not to push it. Maybe she was letting him off easy. "So why help me?" Spoke too soon. Surprisingly for Yuffie, this conversation was rather mature, not that Yazoo was really paying attention to that…anything with him being required to speak was a torture.

"Am I required to answer that?" He asked calmly. What else was he supposed to do? He didn't know the answer to that question himself.

"No, not really." Yuffie shook her head in the negative, and then added as an afterthought in a playful tone "I already know anyway." Yazoo was very much interested by that point.

"And your deduction is?" He asked her a bit of his curiosity showing in his voice. Yuffie snorted and rolled her eyes at his serious tone.

"Well isn't it obvious? You're madly in love with me." Yazoo snorted.

"Of course…irresistible you are." Yuffie froze in her steps and looked at Yazoo absolutely flabbergasted.

"You just made a joke." She said with a grin forming on her face.

"Brilliant observation. A few more of those and I'll start calling you genius." Yazoo shot back, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

"But really. Why are you helping me?" Yazoo rolled his eyes.

"Irresistible, remember?" Yuffie growled at him. Using her own tactics on her was against the rules.

"Answer…now." Yuffie said pompously pointing at Yazoo in an authoritative way. Yazoo sighed. Why did he start talking to her again?

"No." He gave her a half smirk at the almost pissed off expression that was forming on her face.

"There is no rule against self-incrimination in Yuffie Court! You're on the stand so talk!" Yazoo rolled his eyes. Oh god no! They were going back to Yuffie Court. Thankfully the poor man was spared as the duo came upon a hill from which Costa del Sol was in rather clear view.

"We're here." He said with a bit of relief in his voice when he saw Yuffie's attention shift to where they were rather than be so concentrated on him. Yuffie's face lit up right away. She always loved Costa del Sol and seeing after a while not being there was quite the treat for the ninja. She jumped up and down a few times clapping her hand like an excited child would.

"Have you ever been here?" She almost squealed turning towards Yazoo. The poor guy had to refrain from covering his ears at the shrill noise.

"No." Was the curt reply. Yuffie let out a small yelp of excitement and grabbed Yazoo's hand starting to drag him down the hill towards the town.

"You'll love it." She stopped for a moment, the gunslinger's hand still in her own and assumed a thoughtful expression. "On second thought it is the MONOTONOUS and DARK you…" She glanced back at the scowling Yazoo. "A bit too vibrant for your tastes probably…and loud." He gave her a dirty glare.

"And the point of your elaborate rant is?" He asked in his MONOTONE. _'I'm not monotonous. I'm simply serious.' _He assured himself while still glaring daggers at the irritating female in front of him. Yuffie gave him an innocent look.

"This will be torture for you…OH JOY!" The gleeful cry was oh-so evil that Yazoo couldn't help but take a reflexive step back.

"You're a sadist." He declared darkly. Yuffie abandoned her innocent expression and smirked rather evilly at him.

"I never denied that." She said pompously starting to pull him by the hand again. Yazoo was being dragged…it was sort of hard not to notice when your feet are hardly moving, but you're still sliding down the hill at a decent speed. It took him a bit to catch up to the fact that Yuffie was dragging him. It took him even longer to feel the warmth from her hand seep in through his glove towards his own porcelain white skin. Yazoo was not one for contact, but for some VERY ODD reason this didn't feel half bad.

Thus went their walk to Costa del Sol with Yuffie going on and on with her insistent blabbering and Yazoo contemplating whether his hand hanging so limply in the ninja's would be taken as an insult. It really did look like he'd rather not be touched at all. By the time they were close to the city gates, he finally made his decision on the topic that occupied most his thoughts. He slowly closed his own hand around the ninja's gauging no reaction from the girl. And he thought she'd be insulted. Yazoo rolled his eyes at his own, sudden, rush of empathy.

Yuffie came to a sudden halt right by the city gates, almost making Yazoo barrel into her. Two guards were standing in front of the city simply checking that no one 'suspicious' would pass through. For once in his life Yazoo didn't get into the number of 'suspicious' ones. _'This city must be something.' _He thought as the guards waved the both of them in.

The silver haired man shook his head lightly as the duo was assaulted by different merchants from all over. Shouts of "buy this" or "buy that" were heard from all over the place. Yuffie was still dragging him through the crowded streets, not allowing the poor guy to get a good look at anything. Yes, this city was too vibrant and much too loud for his tastes Yazoo decided after a while. It didn't take every single detail to be accounted for to arrive at that conclusion.

"Please take this packet of announcements!" The duo was stopped by a young woman, who was probably a bit older than Yuffie, standing on one of the corners that the pair turned. "This outlines all the activities that will take place within this festival weekend!" The girl continued excitedly giving Yuffie the packet and smiling brightly at the ninja, who returned the favor. "It even has special couples' activities on the third page." With a wink and another smile the girl was gone leaving the two standing in the middle of the street.

Luckily for Yazoo, he has already grabbed one of the packets from Yuffie and was curiously studying it. He figured that the girl was going to start talking as much as the teenager beside him…why give yourself a double headache when you didn't have to have it? Yuffie, unfortunately for the now embarrassed ninja, was. She dropped Yazoo's hand suddenly with a flaming red face and turned away from the now distracted gunslinger.

"Supplies?" He asked deciding not to comment on her sudden mood change. Yuffie nodded, pompously walking ahead towards the item shop.

"And don't you dare think I forgot about the earlier question!" She threw over her shoulder. Yazoo rolled his eyes. Trust this teenager to have a good memory.

"Wouldn't dream of it." He told her quietly _'Sadly.' _He added to himself as the two made their way towards the shop where Yuffie was leading them to. They went in as Yazoo handed his packet back to Yuffie and walked over to the counter and started a polite conversation with the shopkeeper. Yuffie ran in and stood by his side with wide excited eyes. You guessed it….the shop was selling materia.

"Materia!" She screeched excitedly, almost making Yazoo cover his ear. Oh right, the girl had an obsession with it. How could he possibly forget?

Yazoo gave her a sidelong glance and very calmly hit the packets in her hand, making them plummet to the ground. In the moment of distraction he sent the papers flying around every which way without the transfixed teenager.

"Yuffie, you're being careless. Pick up all the papers." He said seriously shaking her out the daydream. Yuffie, after her little lapse in sanity, did exactly as she was told and started crawling around the shop, while Yazoo paid for all the things he needed to get. "I'm leaving." He threw over his shoulder as he exited the shop with a polite 'bye' to the shopkeeper. Yuffie, finally realizing, what exactly she was doing jumped after the gunslinger with an irritated expression on her face.

"Come back here you asshole." She screamed, dropping all the papers back to the floor and running out the door towards Yazoo. She was, of course, followed by angry yells from the shopkeeper about the two of them littering his perfectly clean shop. She ran towards him with the intention to start screaming profanities at the arrogant ass, but halted her steps. There, in the middle of the crowd in front of which Yazoo was standing…Cloud and Barret? Could it be? She looked from one to the other and then to Yazoo. _'Shit!' _

She ran towards the silver-head, grabbing him by the arm and starting to drag him away from the crowd and the exit gate. Yazoo not understanding was the hell was happening gave her a confused look to which she responded by pulling harder.

"Move you stubborn mule!" She screamed while running around him and starting to push him from the back behind the nearest house.

_Hope you enjoyed!_


	11. Lights and Noise

**Silver Honestly **

_Disclaimer: Do not own FFVII. _

_Thanks sooo much for all the reviews. They were absolutely wonderful. I hope that you like reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it XDD_

Yazoo stood behind the item shop with hands folded neatly over his chest and a rather nasty glare directed towards the fidgety ninja. She actually succeeded in dragging him behind the building, but now that they were there, her mouthing off stopped rather abruptly and she was left face-to-face with one annoyed Yazoo. What was she supposed to do now? She couldn't just flat out tell him "you know…those guys over there would skin you alive simply for your silver hair". That was DEFINITELY out of the question. Plus, knowing Yazoo, he'd probably pick a fight with Cloud and Barrett only due to the fact that his defeat even crossed Yuffie's mind.

"Spill it." Was the short command. Yuffie thought of glaring at the arrogant silver-haired man, but promptly decided against it. As far as she was concerned this 'stubborn mule' should stay as passive as possible. Mouthing off won't lead anywhere good. She sighed and looked around. "Now." Yazoo said firmly, trying to catch her eye. At this moment Yuffie started panicking. What was she supposed to say? She looked around herself again before meeting eyes with Yazoo's curious gaze. "Well?" That's when she remembered…

"FESTIVAL!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, putting on an excited expression. Yazoo's eyes widened and for the millionth time he had to resist the urge to cover his ears.

"What?" He asked her with a pseudo dumbfounded expression on his face. What the heck was she talking about? Yuffie rolled her eyes at him.

"Remember the obnoxious woman…" Yuffie still was soar about the damn woman taking the two for a couple "…said that there was a festival going on through this week?" Yazoo nodded at her with narrowed eyes. "Well, I'm going to go get us costumes, but it's going to be a surprise so stay here!" She nodded her head in the affirmative with firmness to her voice. Yazoo lifted an eyebrow.

"I am not…" That sentence was cut off, however as Yuffie put her hands on her hips and gave him a glare. The poor man shut his mouth and watched as the ninja walked out from behind the building and into, what he assumed to be, a costume shop. He sighed. What the hell did he get himself into?

Yuffie meanwhile, watching Cloud and Barrett, made her way to the costume shop that she noticed not far off. The two seemed to be here on some kind of an assignment…the poker faces and the rigid movements were very much perceptible to the teenager. Why were they here? Did they find something out about this Katami character? She'd really have loved to come up to them…she did miss them after all, but she couldn't. She kept firm to her belief that their reaction to Yazoo would be ten times worse than hers originally. She walked into the costume shop with a sigh. Why didn't things ever go easy for her?

"What can I help you with dear?" A middle-aged woman was standing behind the desk with a smile on her face. All kinds of different costumes (most likely for this ongoing festival) were displayed on the wall behind her. Yuffie smiled back and walked towards the desk.

"I need two costumes, please." She somehow felt much better in this woman's company than she has for a long time.

"Which one would you like, dear?" Yuffie smirked evilly. If she was forced to go to a dumb festival just to keep that 'silver-haired thing' from getting himself killed, he would suffer. Oh yes, he would so suffer. She looked behind the woman with surveying eyes. She huffed, there was nothing quite embarrassing enough.

"Would you happen to ha…" Yuffie cut herself off as she saw it on the wall. Absolutely perfect! "Can my friend and I change here?" She changed the question to that instead. The woman only smiled and nodded in reply as Yuffie started pointing out what she'd like to buy.

Yazoo, meanwhile, was seriously doubting his sanity. Maybe he lost a few screws along the way. How the heck did he agree to whatever Yuffie was about to pull? Festival? Costumes? Yazoo was a stranger to those; but if it involved loud noises and lots of colors, count him out! Now only to get Yuffie to come off it. In fact, he made up his mind. There was no way in hell he was going along with her on this. If she so wants, she can go herself.

"Come on you klutz! We're going to get changed." He heard an excited scream beside him. This time, he didn't resist that obnoxious urge. Yazoo did cover his ears the moment he heard the voice…mainly due to the fact that it was so close. He took a few steps to the side before turning around and glaring at the jumpy ninja. Something was wrong. Yazoo was always able to see through people as one sees through glass, but that didn't mean that he had a clear grasp on WHAT EXACTLY was wrong.

"I'm not going." He answered coolly.

"And what are you going to do, exactly?" Yuffie asked in a drawl, putting her hands on her hips.

"Stay here much rather." Yazoo said quietly, but the ninja heard him nonetheless. She snorted.

"You're like a goddamned hermit, I swear! The moment I put you in a pseudo dark looking place you feel right at home." Yuffie said with an evil smirk forming on her lips. Yazoo knew the shinobi long enough to know that the smirking was never for no reason. And also the fact that when Yuffie smirks he isn't able to twist out of whatever she wants. Yazoo sighed in defeat and dropped his head to his chest.

Yuffie smirked at the gunslinger. This was her chance. She could drag him through the crowd without Cloud or Barrett noticing…hopefully. Yuffie was holding the cloak from her newly acquired costume behind her back up to that point, but with one sudden movement it was out and the young ninja proceeded to quickly wrap it around Yazoo. The gunslinger looked at her in alarm and surveyed what was being put on him. Yuffie didn't give him the chance to fully comprehend the situation before grabbing his hand and running out from behind the item shop. She looked back a few times to make sure that the hood of the cloak was covering his hair while keeping an eye on Cloud and Barrett, but luck wasn't so much on her side. Somewhere in the middle of their sprint, Yazoo decided to drag the velvet thing off him. Needless to say, Yuffie couldn't have that. She came to a screeching halt before the black hood fell to reveal the smooth silver locks and pounced on the unsuspecting silver-haired man.

"You look great in it." She said with a smirk on her face, forcefully pulling the hood back over his head, in the process almost climbing him like a tree due to the height difference. By the time she reached his head to make sure none of the silver hair was perceptible, one of her feet was planted firmly on his half-bent knee (using it as a spring) and Yazoo had to grab her waist firmly to make sure that she wouldn't fall off…but the hood was secure on his head. "Why would you want to take it off?" Yuffie continued, not letting the very awkward situation faze her in the least. She jumped off the stricken gunslinger and grabbed his hand again…and the dragging continued.

They finally made it into the costume shop, Yuffie getting a small glance of the pair from AVALANCHE as she closed the door. Why the heck were they simply standing in the middle of the goddamned crowd? Were Katami and his gang coming here? She shook her head and looked up at Yazoo, who was ushered to a fitting room by the elderly woman. Yuffie smiled and gave the shopkeeper a thumbs up for her help. The ninja smirked at herself. _'Yep, Yazoo's a sap when it comes to elderly women. Can't be rude and resist them.' _She snorted at her train of thought and picked up her own costume, walking to the second room off to the left side of the shop.

She didn't pick the outfit herself, the elderly shopkeeper advised the ninja to take it. The poor girl was regretting it now, but the fact that she was about to see Yazoo in his own death sentence…umm sorry costume, lifted her mood. She walked out dressed in a black dress from somewhere from around Louis XIV time. It was beautiful, with the whole look of right before Renaissance, but to Yuffie it was a death trap. She was worried, for a rather good reason, that she'd trip over the rim with no problem…a few times as a matter of fact.

"Are you done yet?" She asked Yazoo after getting a compliment from the shopkeeper (to which she responded with a smile and wince).

"I'm not coming out." Was the curt and somewhat final response. Yuffie rolled her eyes at the door.

"You're such a woman. Get out of there." Yazoo's eyebrow twitched. Woman? He was getting ready to kill the REAL woman in a few moments! He sighed, there was really no way out of this.

The gunslinger slowly pushed open the door and stepped out. Yuffie's mouth fell open. That was the costume she picked? It was musketeer parody. The hat with colorful feathers, the shirt with an interesting looking collar and long sleeves , the fake rapier, the pants going down to the knee with high heeled shoes on the bottom. It was all there. All frilly and very colorful…all completely not Yazoo! In fact, that was the effect Yuffie was going for, but now that she saw it…the damn man managed to look good through all of it. She shook her head and smirked.

"You look…colorful." She said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. Yazoo growled at her with an ever present glare.

"Sadist." He said quietly.

"I already told you I am." Yuffie said, waving the poor guy off. Yazoo lifter an eyebrow at her and sighed.

"I'm not going anywhere like this." Yuffie shook her head rolling her eyes. _'Hasn't he gotten that he WILL do it, yet?' _She mused to herself as she turned to the shopkeeper.

"Thank you so much for your help!" She said with a big smile lighting up her features.

"Not a problem at all dear." The woman said, smiling at the duo. Yuffie didn't waste any time in grabbing Yazoo's hand and starting to drag him once again. He dug his heels into the floor this time, however, freeing his hand from Yuffie's grasp none too gently.

"Will you at least allow me to keep some of my dignity?" He asked her in an annoyed voice as he rubbed his temples. Yuffie stepped aside with a wide grin on her face and a nod. What was he going to do anyway? Yazoo sighed, as became his custom, and offered the ninja his hand. That was one she wasn't expecting. She stared at him suspiciously. Yazoo rolled his eyes at the ninja's narrowed eyes. She let go of a breath that she didn't know she was holding before reaching to take his hand.

"I know you don't look it, but I figured out that you were trying for a…lady?" Yuffie growled at him. She took the offered hand nonetheless.

"Do you always have to ruin every good moment?" Yazoo snorted. "Those are obviously rare and far between with you."

"I know it's hard to believe, but they're even more uncommon when it comes to you." Yuffie smirked at the guy and was about to say something, but they were already outside and standing almost right opposite Cloud and Barrett. She widened her eyes _'Damn it.' _

"I want to dance." She whined dragging Yazoo off to the side and into the crowd. Yazoo tried resisting for a moment or so…until he found out that those attempts were completely futile. Yuffie got him right in the middle of the street, where the music was the loudest. She smiled in malicious glee as the silver-haired man winced at the sheer volume of the melody. "Well?" She said standing opposite the stiff figure.

"Well, what?" Yazoo asked the girl a bit confused. Yuffie rolled her eyes.

"The guy leads." She said matter-of-factly. Yazoo shook his head and looked off to the side.

"I don't know how to dance." He said simply with a shrug. Yuffie's eyes widened and determined expression appeared on her face.

"Well, I'm going to teach you—" Her words were cut off when she noticed Cloud making his way towards the middle. There was no mistaking it. The two members of AVALANCHE were looking for someone in particular, and Yuffie hoped as hell it wasn't her. "—ah screw dancing. It's no fun anyway." She said grabbing Yazoo's hand once again and walking towards the fireworks. "Those are much more fun." Yazoo sighed again and walked behind the exuberant ninja.

"Ever fired one of these?" Yuffie asked excitedly as she gestured for the silver-haired man to buy one of the metal sticks. Yazoo thanked the man behind the counter and shook his head. "Dude, have you lived?" Yuffie screeched, grabbing a match box from the table. Lighting it up she fired up the interesting looking contraption. Yazoo almost let go when sparks started flying from it in all directions.

Yuffie laughed at his interested expression. He looked rather cute in his whole musketeer getup with those big eyes. Yuffie giggled at him as he tried touching the flame, but got burned.

"Don't kill yourself. That will be my pleasure later on." She said wrapping her hand around his. Yazoo looked at the gesture in a somewhat puzzled fashion, but when she began dragging him again the reason that their hands were again intertwined became apparent. Yuffie got him away from where she could see a searching Barrett. Who knew it would be that hard to try and get away from two people?

"Oh look!" Yuffie pointed excitedly. "Arcade!" Yazoo widened his eyes. Oh no, this was NOT happening. She dragged him towards it and stopped at one of the machines. She smirked. "All you have to do is shoot all the targets…that should be easy for ya, yeah?" Yazoo sighed, but did it nonetheless. Of course, it was easy for him. In a matter of five minutes Yuffie had her arms full of stuffed animals of all different colors and shapes.

The girl jumped up and down excitedly and gave the gunslinger a soft kiss on the cheek with a hug for the effort. After having realized what she's done, she quickly dumped her handful of toys on him and started dragging him towards another direction before he got a good look at her surprised face. _'Get yourself together, Yuff." _She told herself as they ended up on the other side of the crowd.

"Smoothies!" She screamed. Yazoo growled under his breath trying to balance the damn pile of stuffed animals in his arms.

"Did you really need all of these?" He asked annoyed at the lack of help. Yuffie took them out of his hands for a moment, just to give him the smoothie with a huge grin plastered on her face. Of course, the toys all fell to the floor. Yazoo's sighed in defeat. Why was he trying to not dirty them again?

Yuffie looked around herself quickly, making sure that she couldn't see either Cloud or Barrett anywhere close…unfortunately for her she could. They were both standing off to her left and having a quite conversation. This was starting to get old! She grabbed Yazoo's arm as he was about to take a sip from the glass, making the poor guy drop the drink to the floor. Yazoo glared at her mock-apologetic expression as she only grabbed two toys out of the pile and proceeded to pull him back into the crowd.

"You left all your toys back there." Yazoo informed her as the two stuffed animals were flung into his hands over the ninja's shoulder. Yuffie didn't pay any attention as she stopped in the middle of the crowd with an evil smirk on her face.

"I'm teaching you dance!" She informed him with an authoritative look about her.

"I thought you said it wasn't fun." Yazoo mocked the girl in a quite voice. Yuffie surveyed him for a second. In a musketeer costume, with a burned finger, two stuffed animals in his arms, with big eyes, and an outwardly ruffled appearance all Yuffie could do at that moment was resist the urge to hug the poor guy and cry at the cuteness of it all. She smirked at his and made him drop the two toys. "I was getting attached to those." The silver-haired man protested. Not that he ever got to play with toys out of everything that he remembered about himself so far.

"Too bad." Yuffie barked. "Now…put your hand on my waist." She continued pompously. Yazoo gave her an 'are you crazy?' look, but did as told. Yuffie put her hand on his shoulder and took him other hand outstretching it away from their bodies. "Alright now move from side to side…to the beat preferably."

At first it was really awkward, but then Yazoo got the hand of it. It wouldn't become his favorite activity, but it certainly wasn't half bad. He even got bold enough to twirl the ninja around a few times. The second time around, Yuffie froze however, not making the full 360 degree turn. In all actuality she came face to face with Cloud standing right across from her cross armed.

"Yuffie?" He asked surprised. _'Well, at least I know they weren't looking for me.' _Yuffie thought optimistically as she let go of Yazoo's arm.

"Hey? No time no see huh Spikes?" The ninja said with a small nervous laugh. Barrett found the group soon after with the same shocked expression on his face as Cloud had.

"Who's the guy, brat?" Barrett asked with nod towards Yazoo. The gunslinger stood as tense as a stone through this whole exchange. _'What the hell is going on?' _was the only though that was running through his head.

Yuffie opened her mouth to reply to the posed question, but cut off. The woman that was handing out the packets earlier on recognized Yuffie and Yazoo standing there in the crowd and decided to ask how it was going.

"Ah the cute couple!" She piped from the left with a big smile on her face. "Found the information on those packets useful?" Yuffie's eyes widened and she laughed nervously at the AVALANCHE members in front. _'Oh boy am I in for it!' _

_Hope you liked it! Please R&R. Reviews always keep me motivated. _


	12. Assassination with no Casualties

**Silver Honesty **

**Disclaimer: **Do not own FFVII or any of the prequels/sequels.

**Author's Note: **Hey guys! ducks rotten fruits and vegetable thrown at her SORRY SORRY SORRY grovels Please accept my deepest apologies for simply abandoning this story for so long. I do have a good excuse, however if you guys are interested in hearing it. Long story, but eh, maybe worth it if you're mad enough XD Please, please, please forgive me and I would like to thank you for all the review that you've submitted! They really brought me to it XD 3

Yuffie sat cross-legged on the uncomfortable sofa in the middle of the room. One look around the tidy place would inform an outsider that the group of, now, four was located in a small hotel towards the outskirts of Costa del Sol. The noise and lights of the carnival faded in the background, and the group was submerged into a tense silence and dimply lit surroundings.

The ninja was desperately trying to think up a lie, but her attempts weren't rewarded. The blood rush from the adrenaline was beating relentlessly in her ear drums and her racing mind couldn't grab hold of any thought in particular. There was nothing left to do but…tell the truth? Why was she so afraid anyway?

"And so this is my friend…" Yuffie started off lamely, waving a hand in Yazoo's general direction. The blonde in question didn't move to argue with the statement, yet he certainly didn't realize the two of them were considered such. Before the young ninja could go on with her tale, which would involve enough decorative, and fake, details, Barrett interrupted with a snort.

"Boyfriend." He corrected with a teasing smirk forming on his face. Apparently the man didn't take the situation to be as serious as Cloud…apparently, unlike Cloud, he also didn't know who Yazoo was. Yuffie would have definitely been very grateful for the lightheartedness, if only the actual comment didn't make her growl in displeasure.

"Friend." She repeated once again, in a low tone, glaring daggers at the older man. The older man in question shrugged his shoulder in an indifferent gesture, but didn't stay quite.

"So what'you do to make the woman out there think otherwise?" His smirk widened to the proportions of a grin. "Hold hands when walking into town?" Yuffie would have pounced rather promptly, no one could blame her, but Cloud stopped the exchange.

"She isn't a captive?" The blonde warrior addressed Yazoo, but the question sounded more of a statement on its own. The silver haired man inclined his head forward in the affirmative, without saying anything else. Cloud seemed to be satisfied with that answer as he turned his wondering attention back to Yuffie.

"What brought you to Costa del Sol?" The blonde prompted crossing his arms over his chest in the process. Maybe they were searching for the same thing. The ninja sighed in aggravation, but had no choice but to recount the story. She told almost everything from the point of the bodyguard nomination to their trek to Costa del Sol. The shinobi, conveniently enough, skipped the little dramas the two had along the way. Those details didn't do anything for the story as a whole, and she'd be damned if Barrett found out about her acting like Tifa when finding out about the few lies. Yuffie still had to shudder at the thought. She actually asked Yazoo 'how could you?' That was just a horrible, pathetic woman moment, and she'd rather never think about it again.

"And you are here because?" She finally concluded nonchalantly, addressing her friends with a grin on her face. "Not on a date, I would hope." That was mostly a dig at Barrett, but Cloud didn't quite let him respond.

"We're looking for Katami, who I can see you've already had brush in with." Cloud nodded as if affirming his own statement. "Reeve has been talking about the president traveling to Wutai, with three bodyguards." The blonde warrior looked expressively at Yazoo for a moment before frowning. "It seems that we almost have a second repeat of ShinRa on our hands." Yuffie understood that already, but tried to slow her brain in processing that information.

"What would be the point of intercepting him?" Yazoo asked in his usual monotone, and Yuffie almost jumped at the foreign sound of his voice.

"No point as far as I'm concerned." Barrett responded gruffly. He didn't like being bothered from his tasks in his hometown. It took time and energy to untie himself of all the responsibilities and would take even more time and energy to get back into the swing of things.

"Assassination?" Yuffie asked suddenly, eyes wide, but a small smile breaking the corners of her lips. "I can help with that, the bastard is going down the next time I see him anyway." Cloud looked back at Yazoo with a raised eyebrow, while the other shook his head in a hopeless manner.

"I had to listen to that for a week." Yazoo informed the blond warrior with a sigh. Yuffie stopped her rant on the bloody murder that would happen next time there would be a meeting between herself and the Katami character.

"Bastard." She grounded out, glaring at Yazoo. The gunslinger chose not to comment, and acted to be blissfully ignorant of that remark.

The group soon after dispersed, deciding on a trip to Wutai the following morning. They were all trying to achieve the same thing after all. What would be the point of working in duos when there was a more effective way to accomplish the goal?

Yazoo chose a room on the top floor, as far away form the AVALANCHERS as he possibly could. Somehow in this whole situation he needed to make sure his brothers didn't get themselves killed. He couldn't care less about Katami, but as sadistic as Loz and Kadaj might be, they were kin. He glared at the ceiling in agitation. Why the heck could Kadaj simply not leave this whole scheme alone? It didn't even make any sense to go through with.

As was the custom, however, Yazoo's lapse of self-pity (in a sense) was cut dismally short. His keen ear picked up on a sound, reverberating throughout the room that looked to be originating at the closed window. He sighed getting up, fearing what—or rather who—his brain informed him, would greet the gunslinger once the curtains were drawn away. True to his conjecture, a grinning face of none other than a hyperactive Yuffie came into view on the other side.

Yazoo couldn't help to roll his eyes before he started drawing the curtains back together once again. That got a nice, loud accusatory squeal from the ninja and more persistent tap on the window. The gunslinger was tired and certainly not in the mood for such childish display, so he waved the girl off and continued on his merry way back to bed. His trek, however, halted abruptly as he heard the lock on the door start twisting open. Someone had the keys to his room, the silver-haired man realized with a start. Not quite thinking, his reflexes took over as he bolted for the window, unlatching it and grabbing Yuffie waist while jumping down towards the ground.

The ninja yelped in surprise at first, but her attention was quickly snatched away from her position when she heard a barrage of bullets breaking from the more intricate to the larger objects within Yazoo's room. The gunslinger in question landed on the ground with incredible ease, and let go of his hold on Yuffie. Needless to say, that sent the ninja falling to the ground.

"You are the sadist, not me!" She accused, her one track mind letting her forget about the assassination attempt on her 'friend'.

"We need out." Yazoo ignored the outraged remark, snapping Yuffie back to attention as she lifted her head to examine the window above.

"Yeah, I think even I realized as much." The girl shot back sarcastically.

"Will you be getting your friends?" The gunslinger inquired of the teenager on the ground. "There is no reason for us to go anywhere else but Wutai." Yuffie jumped up onto her feet and brushed the dirt of her hands and but.

"Nah, they can take care of themselves." Yuffie nodded in agreement with herself and headed for the gates. The silver-haired man quickly checked his belts, seeing that the Velvet Nightmare, thankfully was still hanging off of it, before following the teenager.

"May I inquire something?" He asked quietly as the duo was closing in on the carnival square. The ninja perked up and jumped backwards to fall in step with him.

"Just for starting a conversation all by yourself, you can!" She patted Yazoo on the back with a mock proud look settling over her features. Needless to say, the hand was shrugged off none too gently.

"Why were you outside my room window?" Yuffie shrugged nonchalantly in response.

"No reason really." Yazoo rolled his eyes heavenwards at the lame explanation.

"Ah, madly in love with me then." He shot back in monotone, remembering the ninja's earlier taunts and using them against her. The shinobi growled under her breath, remembering herself say that before.

"You can't use my own words again me." She protested, puffing up in an authoritative manner. "It's against the valiant rule of teasing." Yazoo could do nothing but shake his head at that.

"Trying to get around the issue?" The gunslinger quickly realized that getting her annoyed was amusing to say the least as Yuffie shot him a glare and determinedly walked off in front of him, effectively starting to lead the way.

The two lone figures made it to the carnival square and were fast approaching the gates, still in the same formation: Yazoo in the back with an uncharacteristically evil smirk, and Yuffie huffily stomping in front. Their path would not have been interrupted if only Yuffie's scanning eyes didn't land on the woman who the young ninja remembered all too well. That was the one with the brochures and the one who ultimately caused the young ninja enough embarrassment to last lifetime.

"YOU." Yuffie clipped phrase ricocheted vehemently off the closest building as she turned the straight path and went straight for the blonde in the middle of the square. Yazoo, fortunately enough, was able to grab onto the enraged ninja before any homicidal attempts would be made and hefting her over his shoulder walked out the gates.

"Tsk." He told her quietly, trying to mask the amusement as she started to thrash about and yell as many insults in his direction as her brain could come up with in this less than comfortable position.

**Author's Note: **Thank you so much for reading and I would like to apologize just one more like for this delayed next chapter. Hopefully that will not happen again XD


	13. Author's Note

Hi guys! -laughs nervously and hides behind something large and hopefully metal to escape certain death- Long time no see, huh? -cringes- I have to apologize a million and one times over for leaving this story unfinished. Althoough, much more, I would like to apologize for disappearing and not responding to your wonderful reviews. Thank you so very much for keeping with it for so long. Again, I'm so very sorry. Life happened, and then...ah, let's skip the drama. So, the point! I am thinking of rewriting this story, and of course continuing it, making it so that the plot remains interesting, but the writing style doesn't make me cringe. I've already started working on the first two chapters, and to be honest, they aren't turning out exactly like these ones, but the spirit of the characters is the same, and I'll have an easier time taking it to the next level. So what say you? That sounds good? 


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